


[COMPLETE] DisARMed

by MeltyMetroid



Series: Championship of the Ribbonissa [3]
Category: ARMS (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, filled with headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-05-17 22:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14840036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeltyMetroid/pseuds/MeltyMetroid
Summary: When Min Min wakes up one morning to find her ARMS have returned to regular arms, it's up to the ARMS League to figure out what's going on before the epidemic spreads.





	1. Back in the Ring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Punchbot](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Punchbot).



> // For Punchbot, who's left plenty of great comments on my stories!  
> // For WhisperingShadow (who for some reason I can't tag?), who's been an amazing friend since we first began talking about my stories!
> 
> This is my third ARMS story! It’s written to be stand on its own so don’t worry too much* about having not read either of the previous stories, but if you do want to read them first (I would still recommend it!) you can find them here:
> 
> Dawn of the Championship of the Ribbonissa  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/11453664/chapters/25673781
> 
> Who Killed BYTE?  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/12477028/chapters/28399296
> 
> *NOTE: At some point in this fic the characters will naturally have to address the culprit from Who Killed BYTE? for what they did in that story. There’ll be another spoiler warning on the chapter containing that spoiler, but if you don’t want to be spoiled I do recommend you read Who Killed BYTE? Before reading this one!
> 
> Similar to Who Killed Byte?, this story features the ARMS fighters tackling a bizarre mystery situation! But this time the intention is not to create a mystery that the reader can solve on their own. I think it’d be possible, certainly! But don’t worry too much about it and just enjoy this one as a story rather than a puzzle~
> 
> Oh, and since this fic is being written after Doctor Coyle’s inclusion into the game, this will be the first of my fics to include her and all the previous update fighters too - this one has all 15 from the roster! How exciting.
> 
> Enjoy!

From out of the darkness came a flash of deep pink light.

_ Ohhh oh oh ohhh oh oh ohhhhhhh! ♪ _

The music began to blast through the large squared speakers dotted around nearby. Another pink flash came and the grid of panels on the dance floor came alive with the familiar R-embedded-heart insignia that was known around the world at this point, backed by a mix of sharp pinks and deep blacks.

Several lasers to the back of the stage began to shine into the air, turning and twisting, all the more visible in the light ambient smoke being spritzed out by the fog machines below them.

As the music swelled there came a rapid beeping to warn of the panels’ impending ascent, before a square of 64 boxes began to raise out of the ground, leaving the remaining 36 arounds its parameter stuck firmly where they’d been. From those 64 rose another 16 as a diagonal intersection to stand a big X shape atop the first story. Then the central four of that crossed second story rose again, and the top-left and bottom-right of the third story took to a fourth.

“There are currently twenty or so different formations the grid can take.” Informed the nearby technician as she checked her clipboard. “The ascension rate has sped up a bit from your last stage, but we might adjust it further depending on how the test runs play out.”

“It goes kinda high up…” Ribbon Girl commented, watching from the sidelines beside Min Min and the technician as one of the top-most boxes took yet another story. “What if you punch it out from someone and they fall straight down?”

“Ah, well, it’s been modified now so that the only boxes to disappear are the ones directly making contact with the hit.” She flipped a page over on her clipboard as if seeking something specific. “It can raise to a total of eight stories high, but we’ve currently just set it to six… Ah! And the floor has been modified with ARMS Lab-grade synthetic gel fibermesh. Which basically means falling down about ten stories shouldn’t really hurt any more than falling down two.”

“Hmm…” Ribbon Girl stared contemplatively. It was a neat upgrade, but she quite liked how her old stage worked.

Min Min put an arm over her shoulder, hushing her voice a teeny bit to keep it between her and Ribbon Girl while the technician was busy with stage specs. “C’monnn, hun… Gotta be open to change…”

“I know... I am…” She pouted. “It’s just flashier than I expected.”

“The champ’s stage has gotta be imposing!”

“Yeahhhh… But it just feels a bit much. Like, do we really need the statue?”

Ribbon Girl motioned to a large bust of her head in shining gold that now stood to the back of the stage, watching over the light show below.

“Hm?” The technician chirped, turning her head. “Oh, the statue? Yeah that’s some good craftsmanship, really got that ribbon texture down.”

“You don’t think it’s a bit too… Brass-like?” She nervously questioned back.

“Ha, well, maybe a little!” The technician admitted. “But that’s just a plus in my book. He’s always been my favourite! I mean, congrats and all on your win, but The Commish will always be  _ my _ champion~” She hugged her clipboard dreamily.

“Question.” Min Min poked, leaning herself on Ribbon Girl’s shoulder. “‘You putting anything else in those boxes or…?”

“Mm! I’ve got them switch off at the moment, but once we’ve done our full diagnostics we’re gonna start testing the time release right away. The boxes can hold fire bombs, shock bombs, HP juice, rush juice, very rarely a Hedlok pick-up… They can be harder and require two hits, or be too solid to break at all, or can appear as ‘ghost’ blocks that can’t be stood on to begin with… Oh, and new light blocks that will shut off the lighting in the room for about five seconds. We’re still experimenting with more additions, but for the moment that’s what’s been installed!”

“It’s all just a bit much…” Ribbon Girl frowned softly.

Min Min returned to her hushed time-to-be-the-girlfriend voice. “You’re just a little nervous about getting back into ARMS fighting… It’s normal. You’ll be fine.”

“Mm.”

“You’ll get more used to this stage once you’ve taken it for a couple fights. We’ll do it together so you can adjust to the changes a bit better, yeah?”

Ribbon Girl sighed. “I’m just… What if I’m no good at fighting anymore? It’s been like seven or eight months since I beat Brass and I’ve done practically no fighting at all in that time.”

“Well… You did a bit of fighting on the train.”

She looked unimpressed. “I hung out a window and aimed down, it was hardly a fight. And even if it did, that was still six months back. I shouldn’t have left it this long...”

“You needed a break so you took a break, the fans understand that! People are gonna  _ expect _ you to be rusty, Ribs. You’ll be alright.”

“And if I lose the championship in my first match back?”

“Then you just shrug it off and be glad you don’t have to deal with all those additional signings and meet-and-greets.” Min Min pressed her cheek against Ribbon Girl’s. “You know I’m gonna be here no matter what happens~”

She smiled softly. “You mean you’re not gonna abandon me for whoever wins?”

“Nopeeeeeee!” Min Min winked. “Unless it’s Misango.  _ Mmnf _ .”

Ribbon Girl broke into a laugh and pushed Min Min off. “You’re so gross! If you wanna go live barefoot in the jungle then you better be prepared for me not to take you back~”

“You’re all talkkkkk.” Min Min teased back, sticking her tongue out. “You know if he hit on ya you’d drop me in a heartbeat.”

She replied with some phony gagging noises. “Absolutely not!!”

“Spring Man, then? Mummy? Brass? Ninjara?” She squinted. “... _ Kid Cobra? Is it the snake you’re into, Ribs? _ ”

“I am ‘ _ No Boys Allowed’ _ incarnate.” She stuck her tongue out back. “Buuuut… I  _ would _ leave you for Lola~”

“OHHHH GOOOOOOD!” Min Min gasped, throwing her pale ramen arms in the air. “Look, if you wanted me to squeak every time I took a step you coulda just asked.”

“Bet she’d make my bed squeak more.” Ribbon Girl winked with a smugness.

“HA!” Min Min gut laughed. “Okay, right, well there are  _ four _ things wrong with that. First-”

“S-Sorry! Sorry to interrupt, but uh...” The technician waved nervously between the two of them. “Um… Are we done here? ‘Cause I’ve got work to do on the Keen Comprehension set.”

Min Min snorted. “Whatcha gonna install, some extra seats? I’ve heard it’s at an all time high viewership, so you better increase from 8 spots to 10.” Ribbon Girl cracked a smile and turned herself away to hide it.

“Very funny, very funny. Let’s all laugh at Keen Comprehension.” Came a voice from behind as a man in a smart suit approached, rolling his eyes. “We may not get quite the viewership ARMS does, but I think we’ll make up for it in… Longevity.”

The man was Professor Stuart Appen, the anchorman for Keen Comprehension. It was a real intelligence-is-everything type of show in which contestants would have their directed trivia tried - you pick a topic and Appen, the host, would jolt related trivia questions your way until you missed an answer or, y’know, died of boredom. Min Min caught the tail-end of an episode once and the topic was _plate tectonics._ Exciting stuff, I know.

As for the man himself, he was a rather proud person with a stiff back, shoulder-length dark hair, and a chiseled jaw. His smart three piece suit had a deep blue tie tucked beneath the vest and two silky black gloves adorned his hands out from under his sleeves. Was that a bit too butler-ish? Possibly. But he still met the professional businessman checkbox quite perfectly too.

In spite of both his high physical health - the man was quite the beefcake, to be completely honest - and his dress sense as a smart and well-spoken businessman, Appen was still the host of a stupid  _ gameshow _ and no amount of chest abs or cottails would be able to salvage his reputation for that.

“Longevity?” Min Min snorted. “I mean, I’m just sayin’... ARMS fighting has been around for-brothing-ever. It’s not going anywhere but up! ‘Specially with this lovely lady as the champ...” Ribbon Girl blushed and scrunched her face a bit to try and hide her smile. “...So if you wanna talk longevity, welllllll, I think ARMS will pretty much always have you beat there.”

Appen folded his arms. “I’d warn you, Min Min. Pride often comes before a fall.”

“Oh!” Min Min grinned, sticking her finger out at him. “Azurda, Xenoblade Chronicles 2!”

“No.” He glared back. “Proverbs 16:18. King James Bible.”

“I… Take it you had a bible episode, or…?” Ribbon Girl questioned, while trying to be nice and respectful.

“We had an episode on proverbs and idioms with common abbreviations. ‘The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb’, for example. Often abbreviated to ‘Blood is thicker than water’, which interestingly has the opposite connotations to when compared with the full quotation.”

“... Ah.” She responded, not really much else to say.

“The original quote for Proverbs 16:18 is ‘Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall’, which thankfully does share its meaning with its common abbreviation. The concept retains that failure will often or always follow shortly should one conduct themselves in sheer hubris without consideration to potential inability or unpreventable problem occuring. That pride of the self clouds one's view of the world, and an excessively strong view of one’s self in self confidence, while at first seemingly a positive mindset, will always inevitably lead to-”

“Oh my god, it’s like I’m actually on the show!” Min Min gasped with her hands flat on her cheeks in disbelief. These long spiels were typical to follow after trivia answers on Keen Comprehension. “You’ve cured my insomnia, I can’t believe it!” Ribbon Girl snorted a laugh as quietly as she could.

“...” Appen was, as you might imagine, not impressed. He chose to ignore the two and instead direct his attention to the nearby technician. “Are you ready to install the sound-proofing? We’re a floor below all…  _ this _ , and I won’t have it leaking into our audio feed.”

“Maybe a lil background music wouldn’t be a bad addition, y’know…” Min Min muttered under her breath as Appen and the technician walked away.

Ribbon Girl waved to the latter as she passed by the two. “Well, I guess the stage looks alright… What do you wanna do for dinner?”  
  


There was a small restaurant along the road back to Min Min’s place. Every time they’d pass by it they’d comment on how they should try it out some time, so today they finally decided to do so.

“I can’t believe I’m gonna be fighting again…” Ribbon Girl sighed a little after they had placed their orders. “I’m gonna be so rusty and awful… I hope I get paired up with someone kinda forgiving for my first match. Maybe Spring Man or something. I just hope I’m not against Mummy.”

“Mummy’s forgiving! He’d totally understand if you wanted to do a bit of a warm-up round first.” Min Min replied, leaning slightly on the table toward Ribbon Girl.

“I know! I just mean he’s very tough. Like,  _ physically  _ I mean. I have to throw my punches harder when I’m up against him.”

“Ahhh, yeah, same. I was against him yesterday and I can still kinda feel my shoulders aching a little.” She rubbed the part of her body where her ramen ARMS met her torso’s flesh.

“Maybe I’ll give you a massage later, then.” Ribbon Girl smiled back softly.

“Ooooh, lucky me~”

“But it’s not Mummy I’m most worried about, though…” She twirled her fingertip on the wineglass in front of her. “Since I became champion there have been four new fighters added to the roster. That’s four more people I have  _ zero _ experience fighting.”

“Okay, well, let’s go through them then. I’ve fought ‘em all. Maybe I can give you some pointers!”

“Hmmm… Okay, well, first was Lola.”

“Your new girlfriend.” Min Min glared.

“Mmhmm! She’s the milk to my cereal.”

“The mop to your bucket.”

“The sugar to my salt!”

“Theeeee… Clown to your frown?”

“That’s a good one!” She smiled. “Okay, tell me about her. What’s her whole deal, the inflating thing?”

“Yeahhhh, she puffs up a bunch when she blocks. It’s kinda disturbing, honestly.” In the months since the train incident Min Min had gotten much more used to being around Lola, though even now she still felt like something about Lola just didn’t sit quite right with her. “I tend to wait ‘til she jumps, then see if you can get a few hits in. She might be able to block one or two, but she’s otherwise pretty vulnerable. It does make me real dizzy to keep track of her bouncing though.”

“Vulnerable in the air, right…” Ribbon Girl sighed. “I know that feeling.”

“Who’s next?”

“Ummm… Misango, I guess?”

“Mmmfh. What a hottie.”

“Minnnn!” Ribbon Girl cringed a little.

“The key thing you gotta worry about is being too hunk-struck thatcha can’t focus.”

“Min! Ew! Quit it!”

“Alright fiiiiiine…” She giggled. “The guy himself, despite being total eye-candy, is kinda… Strange? He’s all spiritual and stuff. Maybe demonic. Maybe he sold his soul to the devil for those beefy legs or something? Hm.”

“Just get to the advice, dummy.”

“Right! So - his whole thing is this lil fairy he’s got that gives him advantages, yeah? If it’s red it’s… Uhhh…” She seemed lost for a moment. “...If it’s red he gets like a super armour, if it’s yellow he’ll block against rushes, aaaaand if it’s blue he’ll be faster but have less reach. Something along those lines I think.”

“Well none of that sounds fair at all.” She muttered. “So I just keep an eye on what colour the floating thing is changing?”

“Mmhmm. Oh! But it’s gotta be on him, though. He wears it like a mask. If it’s just flying around I’m pretty sure it doesn’t count.”

“Can I knock the mask off if I punch him well?”

“Yup!”

“You gotta remind me to write all this down later.” A waitress came by and poured them some drinks, indicating that the food wouldn’t be too much longer. “Okay, what about Springtron?”

“That thing’s freaky. I swear if Coyle makes a Ribstron…” Min Min winked. “Then I wanna borrow her~” Ribbon Girl rolled her eyes. “He’s got this EMP attack thing where it knocks your ARMS out if you’ve sent ‘em out when the EMP goes off - that’s a huge pain. Aaaand he also gets charged up after he does it. Suuuuper unfair.”

“Says the girl with a perma-charge dragon arm?” Ribbon Girl glared with a smile.

“Your jealousy is showing~” She winked. “Aaaand that just leaves Coyle. Who’s a total  _ psycho _ .”

“Yeahhh, she seems a little unhinged. Maybe it’s all an act, though?”

“No clue. She only turns up for the battles themselves, no one’s ever even had half a moment to talk with her.” She dropped her head onto her folded fingers. “Her invisibility is a pain. Not sure how that’s even allowed. Same goes for her flying  _ and _ that third ARM she can use. The League’s gotten so unfair lately.”

“Blehhhh, I’m so not ready for  _ any _ of these fights.” Ribbon Girl sighed, putting her face in her hands, just as their food arrived.

They thanked the waiter and picked up their utensils. “Look, you’ll be  _ fine _ . And even if you take a while to get back into the groove of things you still can’t lose the title unless it’s specifically a title match. You’ve got nothing to worry about.” She clicked her chopsticks together, ready to sample this restaurant’s ramen offerings.

“Yeah… Only total embarrassment…” She pouted, cutting into her fish dinner. “Okay, I guess that’s not exactly fair… I shouldn’t be embarrassed to lose to any of our colleagues, they’re all well-trained fighters who-” She paused, noticing the sour look on Min Min’s face, who was frozen with her chopsticks in her mouth. “Uhh… You okay?”

Min Min slowly removed the chopsticks from her mouth and gulped, her face still cringed a little. “...Try this ramen.”

Ribbon Girl hesitatingly took Min Min’s chopsticks and pulled some noodles from the broth. She put them in her mouth and then immediately scrunched her face, picking up her napkin to discreetly spit out what she’d just taken in. “That is  _ really _ salty.” 

“ _ Yeah _ .” Min Min groaned, staring unhappily at the bowl as she clicked her chopsticks more, building up the courage to take another bite. She grumbled quietly. It was easily worse than the one she’d tried during their dinner-date (+ Mechanica) right after Ribbon Girl had won the championship. “It’s like they made it from one of those cheap packs you get in bundles of 20…” She begrudgingly ate another bite.

“Nooo, sweetie, don’t keep eating it!” Ribbon Girl pleaded, horrified. “There’s no way that can be good for you. Just focus on your ribs instead.” Fittingly, Min Min had ordered a rack of bbq ribs as her main course, which was sitting off to the side of the small bowl of ramen she had ordered to ‘check on the competition’.

“No no no…” Min Min grumbled, taking another bite. “I’ve gotta try the whole thing… To fully understand… Their product…”

Ribbon Girl cringed a little as she watched Min Min continue to down the horrible broth of the ramen she held in her bowl.

Min Min somehow managed to finish her bowl, wiping her mouth with the back of her ramen-hand and shuddering a little. “Yeahhh, that’s on the bottom of my list I think.” She pushed the bowl aside and dragged the ribs over. “At least now I can eat ribs~”

“If you make that same damn joke ag-” Ribbon Girl cut herself off as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She removed it and flipped it open. “...Ah. Still on for training at Mechy’s tomorrow?”

“Yup.” Min Min replied, her face already smeared with barbeque sauce. “Dunno why you’re even askin’  _ me _ , though. S’you who’s training.”

Ribbon Girl clicked at the buttons of her stupidly old phone and replied back to Mechanica with a big thumbs up, before shutting it again and continuing to dig into her meal. “She’s got tomorrow off and she’s offering to spend it helping me train instead of actually having a break for herself. What an angel.”

Mechanica, in the time since the train incident, had actually started her first ever job as an employee at the ARMS Lab! Her roles included quite a bit more than just technician work too, though she was hesitant to talk too much about any of it. She’d also frequently insist that she has no connection to Doctor Coyle, but very few of the other ARMS League fighters believed her. 

Their conversation turned to something else, and before they knew it they’d finished their meals and were thoroughly exhausted. Despite the tempting offers given by the waiter reading the dessert menu aloud unprompted, the two decided to forego any sweet treats and just head back home for the night instead.

It wasn’t all that long until the two drifted off to sleep beside one another, too. They had had a pretty busy day, after all - checking out the new stage Ribbon Girl would be accompanied by when she’d make her return as champion, going to that restaurant… Okay, yeah, it was actually a pretty lazy day all things considered. They spent most of the morning watching TV together, after all.

But busy or not, it was still a fun day. Every day was fun when they were just in each others company. They had a really good thing going, and outside of Ribbon Girl’s musical career, Min Min’s ramen business, and both of them being world-class ARMS fighters… It was nice to have a pretty normal life together.

That was the kind of thing on Min Min’s mind the next morning. She just woke up in one of those moods where you just can’t help but look at your life and feel grateful for it all.

She was curled up in bed beside her girlfriend, laying there just as she had awoken from the morning sunlight seeping in through the curtains. She stared dreamily at Ribbon Girl’s sleeping face squished against the pillow, drooling slightly, and let her mind gently wonder back to the kinds of things they’d done together over the past couple years.

Ribbon Girl eventually wriggled in place just a smidget, before relaxedly raising her eyelids and looking back at Min Min.

“Good morning~” Min Min smiled.

“Mmmmm…” She pressed her pink ribbony arm to her head and scratched it. “Watching me sleep now, huh? That’s totally not creepy~”

Min Min giggled. “You looked cute. You made my heart go all gooey for a bit there.”

“Did it go green and put some goggles on too?” She joked. “If you’re getting all sappy on me still this far into our relationship I suppose I  _ am _ doing something right then~”

Min Min smiled softly. “S’your eyes.” She put her fleshy beige hand on Ribbon Girl’s cheek. “Every time I look into them I-”

Wait, what?

She gasped sharply in horror, jumping back and falling off of the bed. Ribbon Girl, in response, also let out a yelp and fumbled back too. “Wh-Wh-What is it??” She pressed her ribbony hands to her face and smushed it around a bit. “Do I have something on my face?? Is it a bug? Please don’t tell me it’s a bug!”

Min Min stared at her hands, which were decidedly different to the hands she had gone to bed with the night before. They were pale and fleshy, had veins that could be visibly seen in various places, and were tipped with white fingernails. She pressed one of her hands flat against the wrist of the other and followed it up to her shoulder. It was all a solid connection of flesh and blood and muscle and bone - no ridges where ramen was overlapping itself, no gaps were the ARMS were stretching, no… No ARMS.

Her ARMS were gone.


	2. Back in the Flesh

“My… My ARMS are gone…” Min Min muttered quietly in a broken and defeated tone.

Ribbon Girl stared at her in disbelief. “Y-You… But… How?”

She didn’t respond, still focused entirely on running her eyes over her the fleshy skinned arms in front of her. It had been _years_ since she had woken up with the ARMS ability. A little over a decade, even. Seeing her arms like this again was just… _Beyond_ weird.

Ribbon Girl clutched at the collar of her pyjama shirt uncomfortably. Without wanting to seem self-centered, she quickly snuck a look downward at her own ARMS… Which were still striped in pink and white wibbons. Phew.

Min Min, shaking a little, turned her direction to Ribbon Girl slowly. “What… Do I… Do…?”

She was lost for words for a moment, before her eyes sprung open and she pointed harshly to the bedside table beside where Min Min had slept. “YOUR MASK!” She yelped.

Min Min’s eyes lit up at the suggestion and she jolted herself to the nightstand, grabbing her mask quickly and placing it onto her face.

…Nothing.

She took the mask off again and pressed it back against her face carefully. Still nothing.

Ribbon Girl prodded her fingertips together nervously. “Th-This… Um…” She didn’t really know what to say. She’d never seen anything like this before - people woke up with ARMS all the time, but to have had ARMS and then wake up _without_ them? That was pretty much unheard of. But if there was ever a time to be supportive, this was it. She straightened her back and cleared her throat. “...Okay, we need to find out what’s caused this. If we know _why_ this happened then we can find out how to undo it, right?”

Min Min nodded nervously.

Ribbon Girl approached and hugged her tightly. “You can’t just _lose_ the ARMS ability. Not that easily. Whatever's wrong, I’m sure we can find a way to reverse it.”

Min Min nodded again, still a little shaken.

Ribbon Girl hugged her warmly for support. “Maybe we should try and talk to the ARMS Lab?”

“It’s not like you can just call them up…” Min Min muttered defeatedly, holding Ribbon Girl in return.

“Well Mechy works there now. Maybe she can sort something out? I’m sure they’d want to see something like this.”

Min Min wasn’t really keen on the idea of telling Mechanica - or _anyone_ else, really - about this. It felt embarrassing, like she wasn’t ‘worthy’ or ARMS anymore. But if there was anyone who _could_ help with this kind of thing, the ARMS Lab would be the ones to talk to. She just hoped they wouldn’t stick too many needles in her. She was back to having arms with veins now, after all.

The two were still scheduled to see Mechanica that afternoon, so for the time being they had a quiet morning together and shared some breakfast. Min Min’s arm-issue was ever present throughout, making the general tone a little uncomfortable and clearly distracting her immensely, but Ribbon Girl did her best to keep things light hearted and optimistic as the morning went on.

Soon enough it just about came time for them to leave off to Mechanica’s. Ribbon Girl double checked she had her mask and gloves ready, then threw Min Min her keys from the counter by the door. “Ready to go?”

“Suppose.” Min Min shrugged, still a little down.

Ribbon Girl reached for the doorknob but stopped short of it as she felt a vibration run up her leg. She removed her phone from her pocket and checked the caller ID: Spring Man! She put the phone to her ear and greeted him, to which he began congratulating her on coming back to ARMS fighting after her hiatus.

Min Min, who was leaning against the wall silently as Ribbon Girl took her call, stared off into the distance. “...I’ll be right back.” She nodded quietly to Ribbon Girl, before heading off to another room for a moment.

Ribbon Girl, with her phone still pressed to her ear, leant forward a bit to get a better view of the corner Min Min had taken. With her girlfriend no longer in the room, she discreetly addressed the call with her voice hushed. “Hey, uhh, Spring Man? Um…” She played with a ribbon of her hair between her fingers. “...How are your ARMS doing?”

On the other end of the phone, Spring Man took a pause, unsure what kind of a question that was. “Uhhh… Fine, I guess?”

“Like… Springy?”

“...Well, they are springs, so… Yeah? Why…?”

“N-No reason…” She laughed nervously. Was this really just happening to Min Min…?

Speaking of which, Min Min came back into the room and leant back against the wall she had been resting on before she left.

Ribbon Girl thanked Spring Man for the call and said she’d have to go, as she was heading over to Mechanica’s for some training, and then flipped her phone shut again. “Ready to go?”

“Ta daaaaa…” Min Min sang unenthusiastically, holding up her hands to where Ribbon Girl could see them. From the sleeves of the deep blue hoodie she wore were… Two pale, ramen-coloured hands?!

“Y-Your ARMS!” Ribbon Girl gasped.

“Nope.” Min Min shot down immediately, pinching her finger and pulling it to show the ramen-esque appearance was actually granted by a pair of gloves. All ARMS league fighters had merchandise gloves of their ARMS as a kinda easy cosplay for the fans. “Had a pair lying around. Figured it’d be better to tell Mechy first, rather than just let her see ‘em when we walked in…”

Ribbon Girl frowned, having had her hopes up for a second there when she first saw the ramen colouring. Her disguise actually worked rather well, if you weren’t specifically looking a trick. So long as Min Min didn’t need to do any actual ARMS fighting, no one would be any wiser.

The two left for Mechanica’s place and spent the car ride trying to keep the focus on things other than Min Min’s issue. In fact, it was something Min Min _insisted_ on - they’d tell Mechanica shortly before they left, but before that all their attention would stay firmly on Ribbon Girl’s training to get back into league fighting. She was, after all, the champion now. She had to make a good impression.

Mechanica waved at them from the garage door as they pulled into the driveway before her scrapyard. She smiled brightly as they excited Min Min’s car. “Hey!! Was the drive okay? I spent this morning totally clearing out the yard, so we’ve got a tonnn of space to practice!”

Ribbon Girl smiled back at her. “Hey Mechy! Thanks _so_ much again for helping out. You’re a future champ in the making, I’m certain of that~”

She blushed, giving a big teeth-blaring smile back at Ribbon Girl.

“Yeah, kid, you’re gonna give Ribs a run for her money!” Min Min chimed, patting her on the head as she passed by, though immediately regretting it soon after as she realized her hands now weren’t exactly the same texture as they used to be - not that Mechanica noticed, though.

The three of them entered Mechanica’s garage and passed through to her scrapyard out back, where the fighting began shortly after.

Min Min watched from the sidelines as Ribbon Girl took on Mechanica’s bucket mech, dodging and weaving past the ARMS being sent her way as she danced through the air to deliver blows of her own. The mech wasn’t quite set to the tough-as-nails Brass Mode it had been in back during Ribbon Girl’s preparation for the championship fight, but Mechanica was steadily increasing its reaction time and move complexity as they went.

After a short string of losses, Ribbon Girl panted out a time-out. She wasn’t upset at all from the loss streak, thankfully, as she maintained to hold a light hearted look on this training session. “I think I’m letting too many shots in or something. I’m getting you close but I’m just going over the limit before you do!”

“Gotta heal more, hun!” Min Min smiled from the ring’s parameter. “You had a healy juice bottle drop like a minute in butcha just let her take it!”

“I knowwwwww…” She sighed. “I feel safer keeping my distance, though! I really ought to leave my comfort zone more.”

“You wanna take over, Min Min?” Mechanica smiled from her bucket. “I don’t mean to hog the opponent spot!”

“Ehhhh, I’m… Fine.” Min Min muttered, hiding her hands behind her back as she laid against the garage wall behind her. “I think I’m just gonna watch today…”

“Ah, okay!” Mechanica nodded, gearing back up to go again.

Another long string of fights played out. Sticking to her girlfriend’s advice, Ribbon Girl did her best to make better use of the stage items a small droid of Mechanica’s dropped in on occasion. She soon overcame her losing streak and progressed to higher difficulties, and despite a handful of further loses along the way, she ended her training session on a high note and felt confident about her chances coming back to the league.

“Okay, the light’s flashing now…” Mechanica commented, looking down at a blinking red indicator on her mech’s dashboard, indicating that it was about to lose power _very_ soon. They had agreed to end things off when the warning began switched from solid to blink in urgency, so she stomped it over to a corner of the garage so it could charge.. “Those were some really great fights, though!”

“I’ll say!” Ribbon Girl smiled warmly, raising an ARM high in the air before her.

Mechanica took her fingers off the mech’s ignition key a moment before she was about to turn it off, and instead flug one of the mech’s ARMS up to meet Ribbon Girl’s for a high five. After making contact, she turned it to face Min Min, just as she always did, expecting a high five in return.

Min Min, who had enjoyed the show quite a bit, suddenly lost her smile as she saw the expecting hand raised in the air. She instinctively grimaced.

The joy escaped Mechanica’s face instantly as she saw Min Min’s reaction. “...I-I’m sorry!” She panicked, bringing the mech’s ARM down. “D-Did I do something wrong?”

Min Min’s eyes sprung up and she stammered out an apology. “N-No no no! Nothing, I promise!” She gave a smile to Mechanica as best she could. “I-I just… I have an… _Issue_ , at the moment. With me, I mean! Not with you - you’re great.”

“Oh?” Mechanica turned her head, confused. She removed the ignition key and hopped out of her mech, standing with the other two about a foot shorter than them.

“Yeahhh… It, uhh…” She turned to Ribbon Girl, nervous, and cleared her throat. “My… ARMS…” She turned back to Mechanica and sighed, pinching her glove by the fingertip and pulling it off slowly.

Mechanica watched in disbelief as the glove came off and revealed a fleshy arm beneath it. “Uhhh… Um… Are you… _Supposed_ to be able to remove them like that…?”

“No no, these are just come gloves I put on to be a little more… Discrete, I guess. I kinda didn’t want you to notice just as we got here ‘cause I wanted you two to focus on the training.” After removing the other glove she began to take off her hoodie, letting Mechanica get a full look at her arms. “I just kinda woke up without ‘em this morning.”

“I didn’t know that could happen…” Mechanica mumbled, running her eyes slowly over the length of Min Min’s bare arms.

“W-We don’t know if this kinda stuff even _does_ happen…” Ribbon Girl added nervously. “Has the ARMS Lab seen this kinda stuff before?”

Mechanica shrugged weakly. “I don’t really read a lot of their files, I feel like my boss might get mad at me for that. I mean, they’re just kinda scattered around, so I _could_ look into it…”

“Maybe you could ask your boss?” Ribbon Girl hoped.

“...Usually she doesn’t like me coming to her with things.” She mumbled again. “...But I do think she’d be interested in this. I could try to get her to see you, if you want?”

“Yeah, I guess…” Min Min sighed. “I dunno how much I like the thought of being Coyle’s test subject, but I don’t have many other options right now.”

“I-I didn’t say my boss was Coyle.” Mechanica insisted, even though neither of the two believed her. She ran her fingertips over Min Min’s flesh curiously. “...I might be able to get you something a meeting with her tomorrow, if she’s interested. B-But until then…” She flipped Min Min’s ARMS over and checked for her pulse on her wrist. “...I’m pretty sure the pulse goes a little weird just before a person gets their ARMS, so maybe watching out for that might be a good idea? I think I have something upstairs to help you check that…”

Mechanica headed for a wide metal staircase that began in the opposite corner of the garage, and motioned for the others to follow her. At the top of the staircase was a much more homely room compared to the garage below - the walls were wallpapered with a cute flower pattern, there was a small kitchen on one side, and a big sofa with lots of cushions and blankets sat pressed against the back wall.

“Sorry about the mess…” She laughed nervously, stepping over a spare bit of metal pipe laying on the floor. The room was as wide as the garage below, making it a very large space, but was cluttered with all sorts of things ranging from thick novels, household supplies, various bits of furniture, and mechanical parts similar to the ones scattered around downstairs.

Ribbon Girl and Min Min both looked around eagerly at the living space they’d been brought into. It was distinctly _Mechanica_ -like, and had a strange comfortability that really made it feel like you could live in here, despite the mix-match of typical furniture and, well, machinery.

Min Min grinned as she looked around. “This place is cool! For some reason I figured you just slept on the floor downstairs or something.”

“I do that sometimes!” She giggled. “If I get tired while I’m working. It does kinda hurt my back, though.”

Ribbon Girl leant forward to get a closer look at a small cuckoo-clock type of thing sitting on a nearby wardrobe. “What’s this thing?”

“Oh!” She smiled. “There’s a little air thingy inside it. Sometimes I light candles if I wanna relax, and I put that thing beside ‘em for if I call asleep while I’m reading. It puts them out before they melt all the way down by morning!”

“So you’ve got a timer for candles? That’s pretty rad!” Min Min grinned. “I’ve never really seen much of your inventions besides the mech.”

“Oh, this whole room is… Like… _Filled_ with stuff I’ve made. Not all of it is really that useful, though.” She blushed, picking up a small metal tube with a blue light bulb on the end from a nearby pile. “This thing is supposed to light up when the bath is filled up, so I know when to turn the taps off.” She motioned toward a door the back of the room, presumably where the bathroom was. “But then I made a thing that just turns it off automatically when it’s at a certain level, so I don’t really use this thing anymore.” She thumped it back onto the pile she had picked it up from.

“I gotta say though, Mechy…” Min Min smiled. “The best thing in the room?” She nodded over to the back wall behind Mechanica, where a bunk bed stood. Its lower bunk was a work surface laid with blueprints and mechanical tidbits, but the top bunk _was a racecar bed._

“YEAH!” She gleed back, rushing over to it and hoping up the rungs of the ladder. “It’s an _actual_ car, too!”

“Get out!” Min Min threw back with her jaw dropped.

“Mmhmmm!” She sat herself down a space before her pillow, taking care not to land herself on the tattered teddy bear that resided beside it, and flicked open a latch on the side of the bed. “So if I suddenly had to get outta here quick, I’d just take the wheel out of here…” She removed a small black steering wheel from the compartment she had opened. “...And I’d press the big red button at the top, which would break of these thingies…” She leant forward and pointed to the corner of the bed, where a metal latch connected the racecar to the stands of the bunk before. “...And spring the car onto the ground where it’s clear. Aaaand then I’d just drive off real quick!” She sat herself back up and pretended to drive with the steering wheel, making car noises with her mouth.

“You have _got_ to get Ribs and I one of those.” Min Min smiled, beyond impressed.

Ribbon Girl rolled her eyes, smiling softly. “As if we’d even be able to drive it around in our room. Actually, can you even drive it around in here?”

Mechanica blushed. “Ahhhh… _No_ , actually. This place is far too messy. Plus it doesn’t even make much sense, ‘cause I’d have to drive it down the stairs and if there was any big ‘threat’ to escape from that’s probably where they’d be coming with anyways. Plus there’s no way to defend myself in here! It wasn’t really well thought out at all.” She put the wheel back into the compartment she’d taken it from and closed the latch. “I can’t even really play around with it much even if I do clear up the room a bit ‘cause it’s a huge pain to get it back onto the stands.”

As Mechanica hopped herself down from the race car bunk and began to search through a nearby drawer, Min Min took a further look around at the walls nearby. They were adorned with various posters, comic book pages, magazine rips, photographs of Mechanica and her father, photographs of Mechanica in her mech as an ARMS fighter… But the one that caught Min Min’s eye was a small certificate. She nudged Ribbon Girl’s ARM and pointed to it, her eyes wide in surprise.

Ribbon Girl took a closer look at the certificate.  


**_1st Place  
_** ** _Mechanical Engineering Summer Fair  
_** Certificate of Achievement  
  
 _For excellence in machinery and creative inventing, we are pleased to award  
_ Felicity Vergara-Ortiz  
 _this certificate as acknowledgement of their skills and ingenuity._

_From everyone at_ Lakeside North High  _and its proud sponsor_ Jelosmith Bodywash  _, we thank you for taking part in this contest and the demonstration you provided for us and our audience._

We wish you great luck in your future endeavors.  


“Ohhhh, Mechanica!” Ribbon Girl smiled brightly. “You won a contest? That’s awesome!”

Min Min face palmed.

“Hm?” Mechanica turned back to face them. “Oh! ...Oh.” Her smile faded.

Ribbon Girl seemed confused for a moment, turning back to check the certificate again. First place… Summer fair… Creative inventing… Am- _Oh_. She turned back to Mechanica with a sudden apologetic look on her face. “O-Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t realize your… Would be on the…”

Mechanica blushed, shrugging softly. “I-It’s fine! I don’t really mind you know my name, I guess the alias thing is more for the ARMS League fans, after all...”

“I-It’s a cute name!” Ribbon Girl smiled nervously, feeling a little bad. A fighter’s alias is _important._ Titles get passed down from person to person. The whole ARMS League roster refers to each other by alias. Hell, even Ribbon Girl and Min Min didn’t know each other’s actual names, they just always used their aliases like they were birth-given.

Mechanica didn’t seem too bothered, though. It was only Ribbon Girl and Min Min, what harm was that? They were close friends by this point anyway. She returned to her search in the nearby drawer. “Ah, this is what I was looking for!” She withdrew a watch-like device and headed over to Min Min. “This’ll keep track of your heart rate. It was supposed to be a lie detector though, so I guess you might wanna watch out for that.”

Mechanica fixed the strap around Min Min’s wrist and Min Min sighed deeply. “What if I _have_ just lost them forever? If I never get them back at all?”

Mechanica shrugged. “Then I’ll build you a mech…” She answered, mostly joking.

Min Min pat her on the head again. “You’re too good for this world, Mechy.”

Ribbon Girl smiled. “We’ll get you all better, Min.”

“You better!” She smiled back. “Or I’ll have to become a rival idol, and you _know_ I’d take you down easily~” A bleep came from the device on her wrist.

“Oh! That’s the lie detector.” Mechanica laughed. “Yeah, you’ll have to watch out for lies I guess... Sorry about that.”

Ribbon Girl grinned. “Oh this is gonna be fuuuuuun~”

Min Min grimaced.

“Hey hun, when you said you remembered to close the bedroom window before we left, did you _actually_ do it?”

“Yes!” The three of them waited, but no beep came.

“...Oh. Well, thank you~” Ribbon Girl smiled, taking Min Min’s hand in hers.

“I’ll try speaking to my boss!” Mechanica smiled as the two began to head back to the staircase.

“Thanks for your help, Mechy~” Ribbon Girl smiled.

“You the best, kid!” Min Min winked.

She waved at them as they left, before grabbing a nearby book and heading off to her comfy sofa.

The two drove back home, the mood generally a lot lighter now with the hope of help coming in the near future. They talked for a moment during the ride back to sort out some evening plans before settling on having a movie night together after a light dinner at home.

Ribbon Girl threw a DVD at Min Min from the small collection on the shelf by the door. “Since you so _insisted~_ ” She snarked, as Min Min’s lie detector had gone off on agreeing to the two previous movie suggestions she had made. The microwave in the nearby kitchen began to beep, drawing her away.

Min Min rolled her eyes, already getting tired of the device she was now bound to. But at least she didn’t have to watch _Wobble Warehouse 3._ Her girlfriend’s taste in comedy was kinda embarrassing, honestly.

She knelt down by the DVD player - something she wasn’t used to doing, given she had had ARMS up until now - and went to crack open the case, but the age old yard sale find wasn’t exactly in the best shape. As the two sides of the case separated a small broken bit by the corner jabbed her in the thumb.

“Ow!” She groaned, rubbing the cut. She turned back to Ribbon Girl, who had just dropped herself down on the sofa with a big bowl of popcorn. “Look - my arms _bleed_ now! How dumb is that?”

Ribbon Girl snorted. “Need me to kiss it better?” She threw a big handful of popcorn in her mouth and began crunching.

“You’re lucky you’re cute!” Min Min glared playfully, before putting the disc in and returning to the sofa beside Ribbon Girl. “What kind is that?”

“The _best_ kind.” She crunched.

“Yick.” Min Min grimaced. “Y’know Lola ain’t gonna love you if you choose salty popcorn over sweet…”

She crunched another handful. “Guess I’ll die alone, then.”

Min Min lay back on the sofa and sighed. “You’re dumb, but I love you.”

-bleep!-

Ribbon Girl pouted sadly.

“You’re dumb…” Min Min repeated, this time with a pause. The lie detector sounded out again. “...But I love you.” Another pause, but no beep.

“Ahhh~” She smiled.

The two enjoyed their movie well enough and then headed off to bed shortly after. Aside from a mighty shock that morning, it was overall not a bad day - the two had shared a nice day together with Mechanica and Ribbon Girl got in some solid training. She was feeling readier than ever to get back into the ring, and that confidence is exactly what won her the championship in the first place (at least, once it came back to her).

The next morning, Ribbon Girl awoke to see Min Min sitting on the side of the bed in silence, her back turned to her, which was admittedly a little scary. “...M-Min Min?” She stammered, sitting up a bit and wiping her eyes. She sincerely hoped this wasn’t some Blair Witch type of thing.

Min Min sniffled. “H-Hey Ribs…”

Okay, phew, not possessed by an evil demon then. But… Not exactly a good situation either, since she’d clearly been crying. “Wh-What’s wrong?” She asked concernedly. “A-Are your arms…?”

Min Min quietly moved her arms up from her lap again. Still pale fleshy, with not a strand of ramen to be found.

Ribbon Girl frowned. She wanted to be supportive, but it was still hard for her to find the right words to help.

But before she could give it a try, Min Min spoke again. “...I-I’m sorry.” She blubbed, her lip obviously quivering a little.

“Wh-Why?”

“B-Because…” There was a pause, as Min Min clearly had difficulty bringing herself to get the words out. “I-I… I guess it’s _contagious._ ”

Ribbon Girl’s breath stopped. She carefully brought her eyes down to the bed beneath her, where she was leaning herself up on the bed with her ARMS.

Oh.

No… Sorry…

That’s not _exactly_ right.


	3. Epidemic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's that warning! If you've yet to read Who Killed BTYE?, be aware that THIS is the chapter that will first spoil the resolution of that fic. Proceed with caution!
> 
> Who Killed BYTE?  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/12477028/chapters/28399296

Ribbon Girl felt deathly sick in her stomach. Was that shock, or just too much popcorn the night before? Probably a good bit of both.

Min Min sat in silence, completely still aside from the constant slight tremble in her shoulders, staring at the floor below her.

Ribbon Girl looked at her arms, flesh and blood for the first time in  _ years, _ unsure what to even think. “...Okay.” She somehow got past her lips. “...This is bad.”

Min Min nodded with a sniffle, still unable to look right at her.

Another silence fell between them. Ribbon Girl checked her shoulders only to find the smooth flesh of her arms melded into them seamlessly. She looked closely at her fingers and could make out finger prints. She turned her hands over and saw decently long nails, tipped white toward the end. She scratched them into her hand and watched as light lines followed them, before fading away.

“I did this to you.” Min Min admitted weakly. Her lie detector was silent, as she really well and truly believed what she had said.

“....No. You didn’t.” Ribbon Girl stared at her hand deathly seriously as she slowly balled it into a fist, feeling an anger build up in her.

“I’m the reason y-”

Ribbon Girl cut her off immediately. “No -  _ you didn’t. _ ” Her anger was not directed at Min Min. Not for a second.

Min Min watched with tear-streaked eyes as Ribbon Girl hopped out of bed and picked up her phone from the nightstand she had slept beside.

“ _ This _ is not our fault.” She walked around to the other side of the bed to meet Min Min. “ _ This _ is something that happened to you for no good reason, and now it’s just happened to me too.” She knelt herself down in front of her, until they were eyelevel. “And whatever  _ this _ is? We’re gonna get it fixed and we’re gonna get our ARMS back.”

It was clear from Ribbon Girl’s eyes that she meant business. She  _ was _ scared, of course, but she was serious about getting this undone and that much was certain.

She pressed her fleshy hands to Min Min’s face. “We will  _ force _ the ARMS Lab to fix this if we have to. Right?”

Min Min gave a weak nod and then sniffled again. “B-But your… Your return to th-the ring…”

Ribbon Girl realized she hadn’t even thought about that yet, having been too focused on how she’ll no longer being able to do menial things like turn the light switch off from a distance. Regardless, she cared more about getting things  _ fixed _ now than what might be the case if thing don’t get fixed. “...I’m the champion. If there’s  _ anyone _ the ARMS Lab would need to listen to, it’s me. The League would pressure them like crazy if they turned me away.”

Min Min gave a more confident nod. “R-Right, right…” She sniffled, then pressed her own hand against Ribbon Girl’s. “W-We’re gonna get this fixed.”

“Exactly.” Ribbon Girl smiled, trying to stay optimistic. She kissed Min Min on her forehead and stood back up, opening her phone and preparing to send a group message. “I’m gonna call for a League meeting. We need to bring this up with the others in case it happens to them too. Maybe it already has, even. We’ll gather everyone at the headquarters and tell them what happened to-”

She paused as her phone tapping was suddenly interrupted by an incoming call. Master Mummy, according to the called ID. Ugh, seriously? Talk about awful timing.

She considered declining it and calling him back  _ after _ she’d sent out the meeting request, but she could never bring herself to outright decline a call like that - she was just too nice. She answered the call and put it to her ear. “Hey, Mummy.”

“Hello, Ribbon Girl!” He greeted warmly. “Well, let me start by congratulating you on returning to the League. It’ll be great to have an active champion participating once again.”

Sour subject at the moment there, Mummy. She can’t exactly participate without ARMS. “Y-Yeah, thanks…” She replied quickly, hoping to speed things up a little so she could send the requests already.

“If it’s not too much trouble…” Mummy continued. “Would you be alright arranging a League meeting for us and our fellow fighters in the roster? I just have some matters I’d like to bring up.”

“O-Oh? Well, actually I was just about to send out requests myself…”

“Ah? Well that works out greatly, then.” He chuckled. “If you don’t mind giving me some time at our meeting then, that’d be splendid.”

“Sure, no problem.” She agreed, though she wondered how much anyone would really want to talk about whatever League-based topics he’d have on his mind when there’s an ARMS-loss issue to discuss. Maybe she’d give him the floor first, if he’s quick enough about it.

“Alright, well I won’t keep you any longer. See you at the meeting! And give my regards to Min Min, of course.”

She gave a quick farewell and continued on to send the meeting request.  _ Unforeseen meeting to be held at the ARMS League designated boardroom, _ let’s say in about… Three hours?  _ Important subject matter, please attend. Love, Ribbon Girl. _

...Was that an alright way to end such a message? That’s how she’d always do it… At any rate, message sent. This was the first time she’d called a meeting for the League. She’d never held one before, either. She wished that maybe her first could have been something simple, with some new ideas floated around and a tray of cookies baked as a thank-you-for-coming. But this was an issue too serious for baked goods, sadly. Maybe next time.

She flipped her phone shut and turned back to Min Min, who seemed to have cleared her head a bit. Her sniffles had stopped and her tears had begun to dry. “...We’re gonna get through this.”

“Mm.” Min Min nodded. “Let’s hope Coyle turns up to this thing. I don’t wanna know what she’d have us do, but it  _ would _ be our best bet at resolving all this.”

Ribbon Girl nodded. “Mechy will be there, I’m sure. If she says her boss isn’t interested we’ll have to get the League to press the Lab more. ‘Course, if her boss  _ isn’t _ Coyle then I guess we’ll at least have someone else helping us out.”

“I guess we’ll take take whatever we can get.”

Ribbon Girl held out her arm, pink and fleshy though it may be, to Min Min.

With a soft smile, Min Min took her hand in her own, and got to her feet. The two exchanged a small kiss, then a warm hug, and then eventually got dressed and went on to start their day.

In just under three hours time, the two got in Min Min’s car and made their way over to the same studio they had to been just a couple days before. They had been to one of the upper floors for that visit, checking out the new stage being built for Ribbon Girl’s battles as champion, but this time they were instead heading for one of the lowest floors, which was filled with standardized boardrooms for people related to the various studios above to use for discussion on their programming.

They paused for a moment after pulling into a parking space outside the studio. They were both pretty nervous - the loss of your ARMS, again, felt pretty embarrassing. It’d be hard to go out in front of their colleagues with flesh and bone extending from their shoulders.

“These gloves are  _ super _ uncomfortable.” Ribbon Girl groaned, feeling the pink fabric between her fingertips. “They’re more distracting than the arms.”

“I suppose we can take them off once we tell them.” Min Min shrugged unhappily.

“I dunno if that’s much better.”

The two entered into the studio and began making their way to the room that was reserved for ARMS League fighters. They had arrived ahead of time, as would be expected of the champion and those accompanying her, and hoped they’d make it there without being stopped along the way - especially not by passing workers who happened to be fans hoping for a quick photo.

Sadly, they didn’t quite make it to the boardroom without being stopped. Not by a fan, though - but by a high-brow loser in a fancy suit. “Ah? I don’t think I’ve ever seen ARMS fighters on this floor before.” Anchorman Appen had emerged from his own nearby boardroom just as Ribbon Girl and Min Min had reached the door of theirs. “Need to discuss what  _ other _ things you can attach to your spiraled wrists before clobbering each other?”

Min Min rolled her eyes. “Nope, we’re here to discuss how best to deal with super high ratings on a constant basis. Got any advice?  _ Oooh, wait, I’ll ask someone else. _ ” Her lie detector bleeped again, but Appen didn’t seem to hear it.

Ribbon Girl cleared her throat, not wanting to be concerned with the two of them getting at each other’s throats again - they had important matters to attend to, after all. “H-Hi, Appen.” She smiled as best she could. “We’re hoping to hold meetings more frequently to get more ideas flowing.”

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt.” He rolled his eyes. “Unless you go throwing tables at each other.  _ Please don’t. _ I’m sure the soundproofing here is even worse than in your studio.”

“Yeahhh.” Ribbon Girl didn’t care much to seem like that wasn’t an insult, which it obviously was.

“Hey Appy.” Min Min blurted. “Ya might raise your views a bit if ya do an ep on ARMS fighting. How come you’ve never done that before? Not boring enough for the show?”

He glared at her. “There are more interesting subjects than costumed imbeciles whacking at each other with long-distant fisticuffs.”

“Not ‘cording to the viewership.” She shrugged.

“Viewership isn’t everything.” Appen reached into the inner pocket of his suit and produced a small white paper bag. “ _ Longevity. _ That is what will set Keen Comprehension and ARMS fighting apart.” He pinched a small chocolate bon bob from the bag between his silky black fingers. “If ARMS fighting is still around in ten… Five….  _ Three _ even, years, well, I’ll certainly be surprised.” He put the bon bon into his mouth. The general air around here was cold enough not to leave the chocolate staining his gloves, leaving them pristine. He tilted the bag to either of the two before him as an offer.

Min Min just started uncaringly at him without moving a muscle. Ribbon Girl, however, actually really wanted one - but extending an arm when they were poorly disguised by relatively cheap gloves wasn’t really something she wanted to do, so she politely declined instead.

Appen left on his way and the two entered the boardroom. A long wooden table sat centerpiece in the room, with plenty of chairs dotted around its parameter each with an empty water glass placed before them. At the far end of the desk was a podium, clearly in place for the one in charge. Behind that was a display screen, and to the left of the podium sat a regular whiteboard with a couple of pens. Pretty basic boardroom stuff.

“I guess this works, then.” Ribbon Girl shrugged, standing behind the podium and looking at the empty chairs before her. “I hope this goes alright…”

Min Min took a seat at the desk as she gazed around the room. A couple filing cabinets sat in the back corner, and something seriously felt…  _ Off _ about them. Like they hurt her eyes to look at. She chose, of course, to just shrug this off and look elsewhere instead.

One by one the various other fighters began to arrive. First Spring Man, who was accompanied by Ninjara, then Misango, then Mechanica, then Lola, then… Twintelle.

The room fell silent as she entered, and all eyes turned to her with a look of significant disapproval. She took her seat and sighed. “I take it you’re all not over it yet?”

“Over it?!” Min Min repeated in disbelief. “After what you pulled?”

This was, after all, the first time any of them had really seen Twintelle in a more casual setting since the train debacle about half a year ago. It had taken her all of twelve minutes to convince the police -  _ and _ the public - that she believed she had made a mistake and was truly remorseful. She spent two weeks in an absolute-minimum security prison, which she herself would admit was closer to a holiday resort than an  _ actual _ prison, and then returned to an adoring public who welcomed her back with open arms. In the months since then she had only ever turned up for the fights themselves and wouldn’t stick around for any idle chit-chat with her colleagues, knowing full well she’d get the very same scornful looks she was receiving now. It was a surprise she even showed up to this meeting.

Master Mummy arrived and entered into the room. “Good morning everyone!” He smiled warmly, before pausing. “...Hello Twintelle.”

Twintelle looked back at him without a word, her arms folded against her chest while her hair-ARMS floated in place above her.

More fighters arrived over the next few minutes. A bigger turn out than Ribbon Girl had anticipated. Pretty much everyone was here, except Helix, Brass, Springtron, and… Well, Coyle. The large crowd made Ribbon Girl more nervous, especially with Twintelle here, who likely had little reason to be polite. It seemed no one had noticed the pink hands emerging from her long-sleeved shirt where gloves, but the thought of anyone suddenly blurting out that realization felt  _ beyond _ embarrassing.

Once everyone had taken their seats, with Brass, Coyle, and the two ARMS Lab creations likely not on the way, Ribbon Girl asked for everyone’s attention and the room quietened down, with all eyes on her. “Uh… Um…” She stammered a bit. “W-Welcome to the first ARMS League meeting! Th-Thank you all for coming… Uh…” She cleared her throat, trying to focus. Her eyes drew to Min Min’s for support. “...First on the agenda, th-”

Misango shot up from his seat, drawing the attention straight to him. “Ribbon Woman. I would like to make an address.”

Well, that was unexpected. “O-Oh. Uhh… O-Okay, go ahead.”

“Thank you.” Misango stood tall and proud, his deep voice confident and unmoving. “...I believe that concession stands at ARMS arenas should serve a size between Medium and Large. As Large is too big. And Medium too small. This size would be an average between the two. And named… Marge.”

Silence filled the room as people stared at him in disbelief. “Um… O-Okay? I’ll see if I can… Talk to someone about that, I guess…”

“Thank you.” He sat himself down without further comment, content.

The silence continued to linger for a moment as everyone took a little more time to really process that incredible display of confidence meets stupidity.

It was Master Mummy, who broke that silence. “Ah, if I may…?” He directed his request to Ribbon Girl with a kindness.

She wasn’t keen on going much longer without just getting things out in the open, but she reluctantly agreed regardless. “Uh, yeah… Go ahead.”

Master Mummy cleared his throat, straightening himself in his chair. “I’m afraid I have some…  _ Concerning _ news.” He extended his right arm forward and slowly pulled back the sleeve of his suit jacket.

Everyone stared, confused, until one by one they seemed to understand.

“... _ Oh! _ ” Ninjara exclaimed, his eyes shooting open widely. He was struck with utter disbelief.

“...Well. I’ve not seen  _ that _ before.” Commented Kid Cobra, equally surprised.

“Am I supposed to be gettin’ somethin’ here?” Lola chimed, squinting. “All I see i- OH OH OH, EWWWWWWWWW,  _ GROSS! _ ” She recoiled, shouting instinctively. 

“I’m afraid it’s quite a dire situation indeed.” He expressed sadly. “I woke up three nights ago to find my ARMS had returned to a non-spiraled state.” He turned his exposed arm over to give everyone a clear look - purple skin, just as he had on his face, coated blood and bone and muscle in a solid length from his shoulder to his hand, which had thick and darkened fingernails adorning each finger. Wrapped haphazardly over the entirety were discoloured bandages, not unlike those that covered his head, torso, and legs, which lay unmoving and lifeless, unimbued by any awakened ARMS ability.

Both Ribbon Girl and Min Min hung their mouths open widely, somehow never having considered that this was what Master Mummy had wanted a meeting held over.

“I have visited representatives of the ARMS Lab about this issue. They have been running tests, but so far little has come of it. I am hoping to speak to higher representation, but they’ve yet to make their interest known.”

Mechanica discretely turned her eyes toward Ribbon Girl. It was clear from that look alone that Mechanica had only found out about this herself that morning, and she had yet to say anything about Min Min’s situation.

“The current belief is that this is directly related to my resurrection at the hands of Dr. Coyle, whom I have also yet to talk to. But be assured that I don’t fear this to be a sign my resurrection is about to meet its end - I do feel perfectly healthy, or at least as healthy as I’ve been since my initial resurrection. I also don’t fear this to be an issue any of you, or other ARMS-owners for that matter, as-”

“No no no no no no…” Min Min interrupted, even though part of her wished she hadn’t. “...You aren’t the only one.” She slipped her hoodie’s sleeve up and yanked down her glove, removing it from the top this time.

Another wave of shock passed on the faces of the fighters in the room, plus a moderate about of grossed-out on Lola’s. Master Mummy was perhaps surprised most of all. “M-Min Min, I’m so sorry…!”

She shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Since when, if I may ask…?”

“Yesterday morning.” She aimed her eyes to the table, unwilling to look anyone in the face. “Guess that’d make you the first, though.”

“First Mummy, then Min Min…” Spring Man uttered in disbelief.

“...Then me.” Ribbon Girl admitted, bringing up her own sleeves to remove her gloves. “Happened this morning.”

Mechanica looked heartbroken. “R-Ribbon Girl, you too…?”

“ _ EWWWWWWWWW! _ ” Lola cried. “So it’s one person a morning??  _ Ew, ew, ewwwww! _ I do  _ not _ want to be next!”

“Every please remain calm.” Master Mummy insisted. “The sooner we understand why this is happening, the sooner I’m sure we can resolve this. If we work the with ARMS Lab I believe they will perform the necessary studies and we will be in safe hands.”

“I’m calling it now.” Ninjara glared, his ARMS folded. “It’s Twintelle.”

She gave an offended look, though most other fighters seemed to agree or at least consider it a realistic possibility. Min Min was just glad they weren’t blaming Mechanica this time.

“She  _ was _ behind the train incident, after all.” Kid Cobra added.

“Are you all sincerely that stupid?” She glared around the room. “Agree with it or not, you’re all well aware why I did what I did. It was in  _ favour _ of extending the ARMS League viewership. This would clearly do the  _ opposite, _ I mean one of the affected parties here is  _ the champion. _ ”

“Well if it ain’t you then why’s this happenin’?” Ninjara glared back.

“You are each tainted by bad energy.” Misango threw in as his input. “It is only through spiritual reawakening that you will regain the gift you have lost.”

“...Okay, does anyone else have a  _ sane _ suggestion?” Ninjara returned.

“Look…” Ribbon Girl urged. “I think Mummy is right on this. We’re best off working with the Lab on this.”

“Mechanica,” Spring Man directed, leaning over a bit in her direction. “You work for Dr. Coyle, yeah? Could you get her to look into this?”

“I-I do not necessarily work for  _ Dr. Coyle _ ,” She insisted as always. “...But I have informed my superiors and they  _ have _ shown an interest in the situation.”

“It’s Twintelle. It’s gotta be.” Ninjara brought back.

“Yep, I agree.” Kid Cobra added.

Twintelle through her arms in the air, with her ARMS doing the same motion above. “Do you think I’m just ‘evil’ for the sake of being evil or something?”

“Yep.” Min Min glared.

“What have I told you about being a drama queen?” She bit back.

“I’m the most sane person in this room,  _ thanks. _ ” A small bleep came from her wrist.

“...Did anyone hear that?” Spring Man questioned.

“Hear what?” Min Min quickly denied.

“Look, let’s please just not start another blame game.” Mummy begged. “I think we’ve  _ all _ had enough in-fighting for one lifetime. Let’s just do our best to work with the ARMS Lab and get this matter resolved discreetly.”

“I think our priority should be getting Coyle on this.” Spring Man entered. “She’s commands the whole Lab and she’s got unmatched devotion to ARMS matters.”

“Yeah, sooner we can get her onboard the better.” Min Min agreed.

“She’s not exactly easy to come by, though.” Ninjara sighed. “She’s unseen outside of fights.  _ Literally, _ even. She could be in this room and we wouldn’t even know about it.”

Min Min stared silently at the table for a moment as a small line connected two dots in her head. She took an empty water glass from the table and threw it toward the filing cabinet in the corner, mostly just expecting to hear a shatter and have to apologize to the others. But an apology wasn’t necessary, as the glass suddenly froze in mid air.

The surprise was clear on the faces of the various fighters in the room, as many of the others turned to face the cabinet. A quick shimmer of blue electricity surged over the shape of a woman sat on the cabinet, before the figure faded into visibility, her ARM extended above her with the glass caught firmly in its grip.

“Well, wasn’t that smart? Round of applause for the ramen girl.”

Dr. Coyle smiled brightly at the others in a manner that seemed just a  _ touch _ unhinged.


	4. All a Joke

Dr. Coyle began to laugh to herself, her deep purple lips curved in a wicked smile, before her laughter stopped abruptly and she immediately crushed the glass in her hand, letting the shards fall to the floor. “I thought it was  _ quite something _ when I heard Zombie had lost his ARMS. And then Little Angel tells me it’s happened to Pasta Bowl too, and, my, you should have seen my delight!”

The room just stared at her. For one, this was the  _ only _ conversation that any of them, save maybe Mechanica, had ever had with her. And she was  _ enjoying _ this?

“But  _ then! _ ” She grinned widely. “I’m sat here watching the show and it turns out Singsong has  _ also _ lost her ARMS? Oh my  _ lord, _ I wish I had  _ popcorn! _ ”

“Salty or sweet?” Lola butted in, with no regard to the feel of the room at that moment.

“Sweet, dear, I’m not  _ that _ crazy.” Coyle shrugged.

“You are professor Coyle, aren’t you?” Misango stood. “I have many questions for you.”

“Oh boy here we go…” She rolled her eyes.

“Question one. How do you think it fair in ARMS fighting to produce a  _ third _ ARM when charged?”

“How do you think it fair to put your little fairy on your face to beef up your stats? That’s a steroid, hun.” She glared.

“The Misangan spirit of honor is bestowed to those of pure faith!” He returned. “Question two. How do you think it fair in ARMS fighting to hide your form through visual trickery?”

“Is every question going to be like this? I run the ARMS Lab, I’ve got nothing to do with ARMS League rules.”

“Question three. Do you not believe that the medium sizes available at most ARMS arena concession stands are too small, while large sizes available at most ARMS arena con-”

“ _ Yes yes yes yes yes _ , your ‘Marge’ idea is  _ lovely _ , I’m sure we all look forward to seeing it come to fruition at arenas near us. Can we get to the silly ARMS losing thing now?” Misango nodded respectfully and sat himself down. “Good. Now! Where were we?”

“I think you were about to tell us why you’ve been taking ARMS from people.” Ninjara glared at her.

Twintelle’s eyes sprung up. “I thought you said  _ I _ was behind this.”

“That was before she said how damn happy she was about all this!” He growled. “Why?  _ Are _ you behind this?”

“Oh hush it with the blame game.” Coyle glared. “I’ve read the incident reports - we are  _ not _ doing another blame game, got it? Blaming poor Little Angel for such a thing, gosh, you really have no tact.” She began to pace a circle around the desk, leading everyone to follow her with their eyes. “For the record, I am  _ not _ behind this. I’d never take a person’s god-given ARMS away. That’s a  _ gift. _ I decided my stance on this rather firmly fourteen years ago.”

“But you…” Ribbon Girl glared at her uneasily. “You  _ were _ behind Hedlok, right?”

“Yes!” Coyle beamed brightly. “You did quite well when it glomped onto Wet Lettuce. And Little Angel,  _ ohhh!~, _ deactivating it remotely via on-the-spot signal inference!-” She pressed her fingertips to her lips and kissed them dramatically. “ _ Excellent  _ show! I’d love to see how you fare against my newer model - I’ve gone for a golden coat, this time.”

Ribbon Girl didn’t seem impressed. The whole Hedlok ordeal was a real nightmare to deal with.

“ _ You, _ though.” She pointed suddenly at Twintelle. “You broke into  _ my _ lab and messed with  _ my _ creations? Letting Hedlok free? Tampering with Snowman’s designations? I’m beyond  _ insulted. _ ”

“You had pretty much none of it locked away.” Twintelle muttered boredly. “It’s a wonder you don’t get break-ins every night.”

“Money spent on security is money that  _ should _ be going toward ARMS research.” She puffed. “The sole exception to that is Little Angel, ‘cause I  _ do _ like my coffee delivered by tiny little beings of pure wholesomeness.” Mechanica gave a soft smile discreetly. “Even then, she does more than work the coffee machine. It’s all about the ARMS!  _ Always. _ ”

“Sorry, quick question…” Kid Cobra leaned forward to butt in. “Last we saw Snowman he was under arrest by BYTE.”

“Affirmative.” The policebot confirmed from the corner of the room he had been diligently standing in with his canine-shaped companion.

“So… What’s the deal with him now, then?” He continued.

“Oh, we destroyed him.” Coyle shrugged. “It’s a shame, but thems the breaks. I was bored of him by then anyways.” She pouted, eyes flicking back to Twintelle. “Though I  _ do _ blame C-List for that. Spoilt a perfectly healthy child of mine, there. All he ever wanted to do was make very large snow angels and you made him a train-jacker.”

“Then beef your security up.” She sighed.

Coyle returned a sigh back. “I guess I should make more Springtrons… They seem pretty good at defensive control.”

“Uhhh, yeah, about that…” Spring Man cringed from his seat. “I really dunno how I feel about having a robot copy of me…”

“I mean this from the very bottom of my heart, Other Spring…” Coyle began. “I legitimately do not care an inch how you feel.”

“HEY HAS ANYONE NOTICED MY HANDS ARE ALL SQUISHY?” Min Min shouted suddenly, raising her arms in the air. “HOW ‘BOUT THAT, EH?”

“Ew, yes, we’ve noticed.” Lola grimaced.

“HOW’S. ABOUT. WE. DO. SOMETHING. ABOUT. IT.” She spelled out blatantly to get everyone back on track.

“Yeah yeah, fine.” Coyle remarked, rolling her eyes. “Guess I’ll take a blood sample from the three of ya then. Jeez.”

“But any one of us could be next!” Kid Cobra presented worriedly. “How can we be sure we’ll awaken with our ARMS intact tomorrow morning?”

Coyle sighed. “Right, well, Zombie and Pasta Bowl had a fight a lil before they both wound ‘up dis _ ARM _ ed. Then Singsong went and trained with Little Angel for a bit, and she lost  _ her _ ARMS. So how’s about y’all quit fighting for a lil while ‘til I’ve sorted this?”

“Q-QUIT FIGHTING?!” Spring Man shouted in disbelief, as many of other others gave a similar response.

“Just ‘til we’ve figured out what’s happening here, jeez.”

“I’m sorry, doctor…” Mummy leaned in. “But didn’t you…  _ Give _ yourself ARMS? Could you not ‘reARM’ the ladies and I through a similar method.”

“Hun do you  _ nottttttttt _ want that.” She replied bluntly. “If you think it was that easy don’tcha think I’d have given Little Angel a pair by now?” She leaned toward Mechanica. “You’re  _ beautiful _ darling, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise~”

“Okay, well, I don’t want my ARMS going all pale again.” Lola grumbled. “That’s like the  _ opposite _ of sweet.”

“Ughhhhhh!” Coyle sighed deeply. “See? This is why I don’t talk to you losers, all you ever do is complain.  _ Fine. _ I will take a blood sample from all of you, if it’ll make you feel that much better.”

“BARQ and I do not run on a blood-managed system.” BYTE chimed in robotically, with BARQ following suit with a small barking sound effect.

“Yeah,  _ duh.  _ You and Springtron are exempt from the blood test. Same goes for Helix, since he’s mostly just lime zest and corn syrup. Are we all happy with that now?”

Nods lined with varying degrees of approval waved across the room slowly and unenthusiastically.

“Good.” She quietly snorted, trying to hide a grin. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just looked at Pasta Bowl again. Those  _ arms! _ God, you look like a weasel”

“Seriously?!” Min Min spat back angrily at the totally uncalled for comment.

“I’m sorryyyyyyyy!” Coyle smiled. “That’s just how I see non-gifted people.” She quickly winked toward Mechanica. “‘Cept you. Sole exception~”

“I really don’t like how you find this so funny…” Ribbon Girl sighed.

“But it is! Right…?” She looked around the room quickly. “Oh come onnnn! It’s  _ hilarious! _ ”

The others clearly didn’t see the humour in it. “Please, Coyle.” Ribbon Girl asked sadly. “It’s really heartbreaking to go through, and whoever might end up next will be really hurt.”

“Okay  _ fiiiiiiiiine. _ ” She sighed again. “The next person affected by this will have my full respect and the matter will be treated seriously and sincerely. You have my word.” 

Suddenly the door to the boardroom flew open and a large hulking figure entered at a brisk pace. He immediately fell to his knees and threw his two arms, which were incredibly muscular yet notably  _ flesh and blood _ , into the air. “THEY! TOOK! MY! ARMSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!” He cried in a loud, dramatic, and hurt tone.

Coyle burst into the loudest laughter she physically could, losing her balance immediately and falling onto the floor below her. “OHMYGOD THAT’S  _ -HA!- _ THAT’S THE B- _ -HA!- _ THE BEST THING I HAVE  _ EVER _ SEEN!”

Max Brass looked across the room in quiet disbelief at the reaction he was faced with.

“C-Coyle…” Ribbon Girl tried, to no avail.

“HELOOKSOSTUPIDWITHOUTARMS!” She gut-laughed, her rib cage hurting. “IMAGINEHIMCUTTINGINTOASTEAKWITHTHOSE **STUPID!** _-HA!-_ **FLESHY!** _-HA!-_ **HANDS!** ”

Lola cracked a smile. “Yeah, okay, that  _ is _ starting to seem a lil funny.”

“H-HEY!” Brass narrowed his brow. “I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW I’VE BEEN EXPANDING MY PALATE RECENTLY!”

“O-  _ -HA!- _ OH YEAH?”

“YEAH!” He gruffed. “BRAISED LAMB SHANK!”

“ _ HA! _ ”

“CURED FISH!”

“ _ HA! _ ”

“ARTICHOKE SOUP!”

“ **_HA!_ ** ”

“QUIT YOUR LAUGHING AT ME!!”

Coyle was losing colour at this point, curled up on the floor and jittering rapidly. “I-I-I’M GONNA BUST A GUT,  _ OHMYGODDDDD _ ”

Ribbon Girl sighed deeply.

“N-N-N-N-NO, SINGSONG, YOU DON’T-” She pulled herself up as best she could on the podium before Ribbon Girl, and then put a shaking hand on her should. “H-HE-  _ -HA!- _ HE TRIED A-  _ -HA!- _ HE TRIED A  _ GREEN PEPPER _ ONCE AN-” She couldn’t even finish the anecdote before falling straight back down to the floor again, laughing so hard that the uncertainty of her body gave way and she began to flicker rapidly between visible and invisible.

“Oooooooooookay, we’re done here.” Ribbon Girl decided, addressing the room over the laughs that were coming from below her. “Mechy, can you set everyone up with appointments for blood tests with the Lab as soon as possible? Start with Mummy, Min Min, and myself.”

“O-Okay!” She nodded.

“Everyone just wait for your appointment times from Mechanica, yeah? And I want everyone to meet back here tomorrow at the same time. If it’s a daily thing we might be able to notice a pattern. Plus we should have some info from the Lab, with some luck.”

“I’ve got stuff to be busy with.” Glared Twintelle.

“Fine, then don’t come.” She glared back, unimpressed. She turned her attention down at Coyle below her, who was still in an unending laughing fit. “Mechy, can you make sure she’s alright and cooperates on this once she’s calmed down?”

Another nod came from Mechancia.

“And… I dunno. Mummy?” She sighed again. “Could you get Brass up to speed on all this? I just don’t really have the energy right now.”

“I’ll take care of it.” He smiled reassuringly.

“Right, I guess that’s it then. Thanks for coming.”

One by one everyone began to make their way to the exit, with Mummy taking Brass out with an arm over his shoulder. Ribbon Girl and Min Min parted with Mechanica, who they left to take care of Coyle, and the two headed for their car.

Ribbon Girl lay forward on the glovebox in front of her, groaning hard.

“You were pretty professional in there at the end.” Min Min smiled.

She groaned again. “They can be  _ soooo _ hard to deal with. What a headache!”

Min Min started the car. “I think we need a quiet evening.”

“Mmhmmm…!” Ribbon Girl whimpered weakly.

“Maybe we’ll share a bath or something~”

Ribbon Girl picked herself up, a little surprised. “Since when did  _ you _ take baths?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Well I don’t have to worry ‘bout getting my ARMS soggy now.”

Ribbon Girl smiled warmly and they head off back home. True to Min Min’s recommendation, the remainder of the day and the evening that followed was far more relaxed than the past 36 or so hours, aside from a quick trip back to the boardroom a little later where an ARMS representative took their blood. The next morning was similarly peaceful, as the two lost track of time simply enjoying a nice breakfast together and stopping to watch a bit of TV.

As such, they arrived at the studio a little later than they probably should have. So much for champion punctuality.

They headed inside and progressed through the hallway over to the boardroom. Once again, they had happened to arrive just as Anchorman Appen was leaving is own boardroom. “Ah, hello again.” He greeted as he saw them approach. “Say, after your suggestion yesterday, I actually came up with a suggestion of my own for  _ your _ programming. How about instead of  _ fighting  _ your opponents you sat them down and-”

“Yeah yeah yeah yeah.” Min Min hushed at him as the two passed straight by without stopping for a moment. “We busy.” He glared back at them, unimpressed.

The two entered the boardroom they had been in the day before, finding a great deal of the roster already present and discussing some sort of TV show they had all caught the day before.

“Hey, everyone.” Ribbon Girl smiled respectfully as she made her way to the podium. “Sorry we’re late. Any news?”

“Yeahhhh, Misango’s been next.” Lola replied nonchalantly, leaning back on her chair.

“Oh no, really?” Ribbon Girl responded, a mixed look of worry and shock on her face. “That’s awful!”

“Right? S’all the hot ones so far.” She shrugged.

“He gave word ahead that he’d be embarking on a spiritual journey to regain purity in his aura, I believe.” Mummy noted. “Though he urges you to consider that whole ‘Marge’ thing.”

“Mm.” She bit her lip. “...How are you holding up, Brass?” She directed her attention at the hulking hunk sat at the end of the table’s left-side, who had notably less energy than he had the day before - or any day anyone had seen him, really.

“I just want my ARMS back, man.” He mumbled defeatedly.

“Eh, the biceps look kinda good on you.” Lola shrugged. She had gotten a bit more used to seeing various fighters with their arms back to normal.

“Okay, what about Twintelle? Is she coming or not?”

“Nope.” Spring Man frowned, his face pushed against his hand as he rested his elbow on the table below him. “Seems she didn’t think it was worth her time.”

“See if she thinks that when  _ she _ goes back to normal arms.” Ninjara muttered.

“She already  _ has _ normal arms.” Min Min reminded him.

“Well maybe her hair-ARMS will become normal arms, then. That’d sure freak her out.”

“Ewwwwww!” Lola cringed. “Seriously, you lot gotta quit it with the gross stuff.”

“Mechy?” Ribbon Girl directed. “Any news from Coyle?”

“Umm…” She seemed a little nervous. “She didn’t really speak to me much today. She was in a  _ really _ bad mood.”

“Yeah, she gets like that.” Brass mumbled. “‘Specially after she’s seen me. Once she’s done laughing, at least.”

“I think she said she’d turn up at some point but I’m not sure when that might be. She  _ was _ working on the blood, though. She’s probably just finishing up some tests.”

“Thanks, Mechy.” Ribbon Girl muttered quietly, looking around the room. “Ooookay, I guess… Then we should probably do some brainstorming on our own or something.” She grabbed the nearby whiteboard and pulled it closer, before picking up a pen from the tray attached to it. “Let’s get down who’s lost their ARMS so far, and the order…” The pen squeaked on the whiteboard as she wrote. “Brass, when exactly did you lose your ARMS?”

“Yesterday morning.” He answered in that same defeated tone.

“Same as me, then…”

She sighed deeply. “And did you do any ARMS fighting the past couple days before that or…?”

“Nothing one-on-one.” He sighed. “Just some endurance training at the gym. Me and the bag.”

“Right.” She put a small question mark beside Brass’s name on the board, where little crosses were for herself, Mummy, and Min Min. “What about Misango, do we know if he had any recent fights?”

Shrugs from around the room. No one really knew him all that well.

“ _ Thanks, Misango. _ ” She muttered under her breath as she put two question marks beside his name. “ _ What a ‘marge’ help you’ve been. _ ”

“S’all M-names folk. That’s somethin’.” Lola blew a big bubble from the gum she was chewing until it burst, then chewed it back into her mouth. “‘Cept you, ‘course.”

Ribbon Girl squinted at the board. That’s all the M’s except Mechanica, but she didn’t have ARMS to begin with. Does that actually mean something, or is it just coincidental? She herself was the odd one out, though. Her real name didn’t begin with an M either, so that couldn’t be it. But it  _ did _ begin with an  _ F _ \- maybe the other four’s did too, and  _ that’s _ what connected them all? But wait, she’d already seen Mechanica’s name, and that began with an F, yet she wasn’t on the board… Wait, sorry, forgot she didn’t have them to begin with. So maybe that  _ was _ it, then? Or is that a dumb idea? It’s kinda dumb idea.

A hard smack sounded through the room as the door slammed open, scaring pretty much everyone right out of their skin. Coyle entered in quietly, with the most deathly unhappy look on her face physically possible. She slammed the door shut behind her and quietly marched over to the podium where Ribbon Girl stood in stunned silence, her boots clacking on the hard tile floor with every step she took.

She came behind the podium and faced Ribbon Girl face-to-face, who had to look up at her to make up for the slight height difference between them. Coyle stared down at her, as if staring straight through her eyes into her  _ soul. _ “Sit.” She said firmly and commandingly.

That was an order Ribbon Girl was not about to fight - especially considering that one  _ thing _ that had everyone struck silent in fear. She relinquished control of the room to Coyle and sat herself down next to Min Min.

Coyle stood herself behind the podium in Ribbon Girl’s place, her eyes drained and tired. She dropped a heavy stack of messy research notes onto the surface raised before her with an audible thump and cleared her throat. “We are facing a very serious and troublesome epidemic here. I need cooperation from  _ every single one of you. _ If I ask you a question I expect the truth. If I request samples of  _ anything, _ I expect you to provide them without question. Do I make myself understood?”

An uneasy nod scattered from person to person before her.

“Good.” She walked a few steps beside her to the whiteboard that Ribbon Girl had begun to mark. “Then let’s fix this.”

She picked up the pen with her soft white hand.


	5. Stopping This

Coyle wiped the sleeve of her lab coat over the names Ribbon Girl had written and in its place she drew a strange squiggly circle with several smaller squiggly circles inside it, as well as varying strikes and hashes and crosses, ending up with a bizarre scribble that didn’t look like anything any of the rest of them had ever really encountered before.

“ _ This? _ ” She snapped, tapping the doodle with the end of her pen. “This is a  _ virus. _ And guess what - every single one of us here is infected with it.”

Disbelief and fear reigned supreme on the faces of the other fighters, though subtly different now from the disbelief and fear they had been expressing upon Coyle’s entrance.

“The virus seeks out and attaches itself onto the ARMS gene within us all. That ARMS gene, by the way, is always vibrating. Real quick. So fast it’s hard to even notice it. But it’s in there and it’s jittering back and forth a thousand times a second.” She pressed her flesh finger to the drawing. “When this thing attaches itself to the ARMS gene? It cancels out that vibration.”

Master Mummy nervously raised his hand. “S-Sorry, but if my understanding of ARMS biology is correct, is the stopping of the vibration not similar to the disabling effect that charged electrical ARMS have on an opponent?”

“Yes. Though it’s not quite the same.” She inhaled deeply. “Electrical attacks stunt the ARMS genes for just a split second, throwing off the vibration rhythm, like how tripping over your feet while you’re walking makes you stumble for a second. Your ARMS lose their connection so they drop to the floor, but the vibration regularizes itself again after a moment so your ARMS come back up a few seconds later.”

Mummy nodded in understanding. The degree to which the others understood that explanation varied from person to person, but most of them got the jist of it.

“When a person first gets their ARMS that vibration is completely out of sync with itself, it’s just all over the place. The masks created by the ARMS Lab regularizes that vibration, which gives you control over your ARMS. Once you’ve worn that mask for a while, removing the mask no longer throws that vibration out of sync again - it just makes the vibration slow a bit. Your ARMS react to that by coiling up and acting like regular arms, for the most part.  _ That’s _ how the masks work.  _ That’s _ why you have to wear your mask straight for a week.  _ That’s _ why your ARMS don’t coil out of control again after you’ve done so. Questions?”

None.

“Good. So - if you were to keep a constant pulsing electrical surge going through a person for long enough, well, they’d die. Obviously. But if they didn’t - or if you kept it going on to their corpse - you’d find that if the ARMS genes are kept stationary for long enough they wind up resorting a back to their ‘regular’ appearance. This is something we didn’t know until now. It has been a very long night.”

“So that’s what’s happening to us?” Mummy returned. “Our genes are being kept still so our ARMS switch back to flesh ones?”

“Yes.”

Ribbon Girl was a still a little caught on that line about keeping the electrical pulse going on a corpse. Hopefully that was just a hypothetical example, not something they tested. Hey, wait a second… “Hold on, sorry, um… Are you saying we still  _ have _ the ARMS gene?”

“Yes. Well, I mean,  _ everyone _ has ARMS genes, it’s just that one of us have active genes and others aren’t yet active. We don’t know yet what causes them to activate, but that’s not important to us at the moment - we all, barring Little Angel, still have  _ active _ ARMS genes. None of us have lost the gift of ARMS, we’ve just had it put on standby.”

That felt reassuring. Thank god for  _ that. _

“For the record, Little Angel - even with her inactive genes - still has the virus present in her bloodstream. But the various other workers at the ARMS lab? Hit and miss. Those who weren’t frequent fighters were pretty much always clean.”

“So it’s definitely a fighting thing?” Ninjara deduced.

“ _ No. _ I sent two teams to get volunteer blood from nearby ARMS gyms. Zero from either of them had traces of the virus.  _ Zero. _ This isn’t to do with fighting, it’s to do with the ARMS League. And furthermore this virus isn’t anywhere  _ close _ to being natural. It was made in a lab. Not  _ my _ lab, but  _ a _ lab. Someone has intentionally infected us with this.”

Okay, that  _ didn’t _ feel reassuring.

“Well we know what it is now, right?” Kid Cobra panicked. “So you can just make a cure!”

“Ain’t that easy, Slytherin. I’ve got people working on it but a cure will still take  _ weeks _ to find, at absolute minimum. But there’s a shortcut for the time being…” She drew a horizontal line on the whiteboard and put a short vertical line to the its left, its right, and straight down the middle. “The virus isn’t enough on its own to stop the ARMS gene vibrations, which is why there are people in this room who still have their ARMS. The virus is strengthened by  _ something. _ And it’s that  _ something _ that lets it nullify our genes. Imagine, for example, that its strengthened by acidity.” She pointed to the right of the line she had drawn. “Acidity goes up, ARMS go bye-bye.”

“ _ But! _ ” Master Mummy jumped with his eyes widened. “If you were to then swing to the  _ opposite _ end of the scale…!”

Coyle pointed at him with a soft smile. “Treat the virus with alkaline and it weakens dramatically. ARMS come back.”

“Th-Then get us some alka-thingies!” Kid Cobra urged quickly.

“That was an  _ example _ you idiot.” She snapped. “We don’t  _ know _ what scale this virus is playing on. We won’t know the treatment until we can find what sends it to the opposite end of that scale.”

Okay, well, all things considered this is a positive direction. How hard could this be to figure out?

“We do have a clue, though. The virus is red but gets gradually more blue the stronger it gets…” Coyle turned back to the whiteboard, erasing her drawing and instead beginning a list of names. “Here’s what we  _ do _ know…” The names, as she listed them, followed like so:

_ Mummy, Min Min, Ribbon, Loser, Dr. Coyle _

“Those are the four of us that have lost our ARMS. All entirely in the blue.”

__ Cobra  
__ Misango  
__ Spring, Ninjara  
__ Twintelle  
_ Mechanica  
_ __ Lola, Helix

“That’s the order of your viruses, going from close to blue to pretty much totally red. Obviously Springtron and the police bots don’t have the virus at all.”

“W-W-Wait, I’m next??” Kid Cobra shook.

“Evidently, yes.” She glared uncaringly. “That’s not that notable, though. What I want to know is why  _ Lola  _ is at the bottom of the list.”

The clown girl shrugged weakly. “Luck?”

“This is  _ beyond _ luck. Your virus is solid red, it isn’t even a  _ step _ toward energizing. I could excuse Helix’s results as a strange artifact of his biology, but  _ you? _ ”

“Hey, wait, why am I not on the list!” Brass glared.

Coyle struck her finger to the word ‘Loser’ mixed in with the other three who had lost their ARMS.

“Um, sorry, Coyle?” Ribbon Girl pointed weakly to the board. She was trying her best to fully understand everything, but it was certainly a lot to take in. “If that’s the order that ARMS are lost in, why has Cobra still got his? Misango lost his this morning.”

She raised an eyebrow. “He did…?” She turned to look at the board again. “But that’s… Hm. I’m certain I got that right…”

“S-So maybe I’m  _ not _ next, then?” Cobra pleaded.

“Look, ignore Eye Candy for now and assume the sequence is correct. Hell, maybe him going out of order will prove a clue for us - what has Eye Candy been more exposed to since the last meeting than Slytherin? ...But less than the four of us who have already lost our ARMS.” She looked back at the board again. “...And also he wasn’t  _ as _ exposed to it compared to Slytherin until  _ after _ the meeting yesterday. Gah! Okay, forget Eye Candy’s involvement here, he’s an outlier.”

Master Mummy crossed his arms. “Can we go back a minute to when you said this was an  _ intentional _ infecting? Who would do such a thing, and what would they have to gain from it?”

“Dunno.” She shrugged her pathetically meek shoulders. “But that’s for you lot to figure out, I’ve got notes to take!” She picked up a notebook from below the stack of research notes. “One by one I’m gonna bring you into the next room over for a questioning. It’ll be  _ intensive. _ It’ll be  _ invasive. _ I want every single question answered  _ truthfully. _ Most of it will be centered around the time between now and two weeks before Mummy lost his ARMS, but regardless of what I ask you I expect an accurate answer without hesitation.”

Well, that sure sounds uncomfortable.

“Following that I’m gonna give you a timeslot to come back here and provide more samples. We want more than just your blood this time. Some of it might _ hurt. _ Some of it might be  _ degrading. _ But we need every single shred of data we can muster up. Got it?”

An uneasy nod passed from fighter to fighter.

“Right - Mummy, you’re up first.” She walked over to the doorway and turned back to the others. “As for the rest of you, get brainstorming. Find whatever the lot of you have in common. The faster you find it the faster we can begin treatment.” And with that she left to take Mummy to a nearby empty room, for at least  _ some _ privacy during her round of invasive questioning.

The remaining fighters each gathered round and began trying for any thread to go one they possibly could. It was certainly easier said than done, though - Ribbon Girl had been out of any ARMS League fights for over half a year now. Same goes for Brass. But then you had others, like Spring Man, who were fighting practically daily. In terms of home life they all seemed to have vastly different diets, hobbies, sleep schedules, and home comforts.

“It’s total wins. That’s how the order is chosen!” Kid Cobra gasped, looking at the list Coyle had written, before swinging back to face the others. “Mummy’s been in ARMS fighting for  _ ages _ . Brass was the undefeated champion for years, and then Ribbon Girl managed to beat him so that’s just another point to her!”

Min Min didn’t look convinced. “Coyle’s been here for like a couple months at best.”

Kid Cobra turned back to the list again. “Th-Then it’s win  _ ratio! _ Coyle’s only been here for a while, but she’s won like every match she’s been in!”

“Then shouldn’t she have lost her ARMS  _ first? _ ” Min Min glared.

“Gahhh!” He groaned. “This is too hard! I just don’t wanna lose my ARMS, man.” He flumped himself onto the table, defeated.

The door slowly opened and Master Mummy entered again. “Min Min, Coyle wants to see you next.”

She sighed, getting up from her seat. “What should I be expecting? She gonna be all up in my business?”

“Very much so.” Mummy shrugged back weakly. “It’s a pretty invasive interview, but hopefully it’ll have been worthwhile in the end.”

Min Min nodded in return, gave Ribbon Girl a small kiss, and then headed out the door.

“So.” Mummy addressed the others as he took a seat at the table. “Discovered any connections?”

“Nothing significant.” Ribbon Girl sighed. “We’re still trying to compile basic stuff like hobbies and eating habits. Any input you can give there?”

“Hm...” He thought, scratching the back of his head. “Well I don’t have much time for hobbies nowadays, between ARMS fighting and taking care of the kids. I used to be quite the model builder back in the day, though. You ought to see my collection.”

“That one widda big sail still blows my mind, y’know.” Lola butt in, leaning herself on the table. “I  _ still _ don’t know how you got that through the bottleneck.”

Mummy smiled. “I keep telling you it’s set up piece-by-piece within the bottle.”

“W’yeah, I get that, but they’re still big bits before you assemble ‘em all together. How do you get the big bits through the bottleneck?”

“I’ve told you this before, Lola! The pieces-”

“Sorry! Sorry...” Ribbon Girl interrupted before this tangent got any further. “But... Could I get some stuff about your eating habits? I really just wanna get all this stuff down so Coyle doesn’t berate us for ‘wasting time’ when she’s back.” Ribbon Girl hadn’t even bothered to write down Mummy’s model building hobby. I mean, seriously? Is  _ that _ gonna be the key to all of this? Come on.

“Ah! Well, I’ve not always had the best diet I’ll admit.” Mummy sighed. “But more recently my wife has been trying to get me on a healthier plan to, y’know, set a good example for the kids, take better care of my health... You get the idea. It takes an awful lot of getting used to, but I really am starting to feel the benefits.”

Ribbon Girl perked up a bit. “...You’re on a diet? Wait, wait, wait, wait - Brass said he started one too...!”

The attention turned to Brass, who was still moping at corner of the table, uncharacteristically quiet and moody. He too perked up suddenly. “Y-Yeah, I’ve been trying to expand my palate a bit...?”

“W-We might be onto something, then?” Ribbon Girl hoped, holding her breath.

“Not to burst your bubble, sweetie...” Lola butt in again. “Buuuut I’ve kinda been drinking nothin’ but pure cane syrup since the day I was born.”

“Yeah,  _ and you still have your ARMS _ .” Ribbon Girl smiled.

“Ohhh dip!” Lola grinned back. “Damn, maybe you  _ do _ got somethin’ then.”

“So you’re saying we just gotta eat badly to keep our ARMS??” Kid Cobra pleaded. “What’s the nearest steakhouse and how long is it open for??”

“Beef and Briskets, about five minutes if you take a left from the studio doors and head straight down.” Brass responded instantly from memory. “They close at six.”

Kid Cobra shot to his feet. “W-Well what are we waiting for??” Brass stood sharply in return. “T-Tell Coyle we’re off to, uh, r-research!” The two of them sped out of the room at lightning speed.

“Hm.” Ribbon Girl squinted at the door as it slowly closed itself following the harsh exit the two had just made. Now that she really thought about it, she and Min Min didn’t exactly have the best diets. But hey, a lead is a lead, right?

The remaining team continued to brainstorm until Min Min eventually made her return, looking exhausted and mildly bothered.

“Hey, hun. How was it...?” Ribbon Girl welcomed as warmly as she could.

“I don’t think I like Coyle all that much.” She glared at the floor. “Any luck figuring this stuff out?”

“Kiiiinda...? We have a lead. Maybe. We think?” She didn’t seem so certain. “Mummy and Brass both changed their eating habits to somewhat healthier stuff pretty recently.”

“Hm.” Min Min clearly wasn’t convinced. “But...  _ We _ haven’t exactly done that, right? I had ribs before I lost my ARMS and I have ribs like twice a week - plus a load of ramen, like, every single day.”

“I didn’t say it was a  _ good _ lead...” Ribbon Girl muttered. With a sigh she got up from the table. “I guess I gotta go face Coyle, then. Wish me luck.”

One small kiss on the cheek later (from Min Min, obviously) and Ribbon Girl was on her way to the room next door. She was certainly feeling less confident about that lead now, but it  _ could _ still prove true, right? Kid Cobra and Brass were putting it to the test, at least. 

Ribbon Girl opened the door and entered, shutting it behind her. “Sit.” Coyle instructed, sat on the opposite side of a small desk as she put a new page on the top of her clipboard’s stack. “Any update on finding the catalyst?”

She felt unsure if it was even worth mentioning, but figured a flat ‘No, nothing.’ would come off worse. “W-Well... We think it could be related to healthy eating? Mummy and Brass have both switched to a healthier lifestyle recently, s-so...”

Coyle just stared at her blankly. “...Right. And that applies to yourself and Pasta Bowl too?”

“N-Not exactly...” She muttered uncomfortably.

“And the diets of the other fighters in the room? Those  _ with _ ARMS still?”

“L-Lola only eats candy, Cobra is kinda normal, Spring Man says he snacks a lot, and... Um...” She did her best to get the words out. “...Ninjara’s a vegetarian.”

“Aaaand Helix... Doesn’t eat.” A deep sigh came from Coyle. “Well, that was a bad lead from the get-go. I could have shot that down in an instant - I’ve eaten nothing but steak each night for the past eight years.”

“O-Oh...?” Ribbon Girl seemed surprised.

“Old habits die hard.” Coyle admitted. “I’d be surprised if Wet Lettuce wasn’t bluffing that whole ‘diet change’ thing, too.” She clicked her pen and put her feet up on the desk. “Failures aside, let’s get to the questioning.”

“M-Mm.” Ribbon Girl nodded, defeatedly.

“Right, so... Ribbon Girl. Age?”

“Twenty.”

“Sex and gender?”

“Female, to both.”

“Name”

“Ribbon Girl.”

Coyle paused. “... _ Name? _ ”

Ribbon Girl looked back at her, confused. “...Do you mean...?” Another short pause. “I-I’m not going to tell you my  _ name _ ...”

“Oh quit being so paranoid. Do I look like I’m gonna sell your name as a ‘hot scoop’ to some dimwit journalist? I need it to pull your medical records. Just spit it out already.”

“B-But we’re supposed to use aliases! Even Min Min doesn’t know my name...”

Coyle rolled her eyes. “Is  _ everyone _ going to make such a big deal about this? We’re  _ three _ questions in. Just give me your damn name already, I’m not gonna laugh at you.”

Ribbon Girl blushed, fidgeting in her seat for a moment before finally giving in. “...Faye Kingston.”

Coyle squinted at her briefly before flicking her eyes down to the clipboard in her hands. She flicked a page back and gave a little snort.

“...W-What?”

“Nothing!” Coyle tried to hide her laugh but her mouth pretty obviously curved at the sides. “That is  _ so _ dumb...”

“H-Hey!” Ribbon Girl blushed back.

“Okay, okay, okay. Let’s focus.” She flipped back to the top page and scribbled down the name she’d been given. “That’s three down and about one hundred and eighty left to go. Do you have any preference for where we start?”

“I guess not...”  _ How _ many questions did she just say there were?

“Good.” Coyle smiled. “Then let’s begin wiiiiith... Past relationships and sexual history!”

After a very long and  _ very _ pushy questioning session, Ribbon Girl was released back to the boardroom and Max Brass - who had only recently come back with Kid Cobra from their joint ‘research’ meal - took her place. Brass would later return  _ much _ faster than the other fighters had, visibly drained and exhausted from the ordeal. Next in was Lola - as she was at the  _ bottom _ of the list - followed by Kid Cobra, Spring Man, and then Ninjara, before finally ending on Mechanica, despite her copy of the virus not necessarily having any effect on her. Twintelle and Misango, being absent from today’s meeting, had to be left out of the information pool for today.

“Right then.” Coyle addressed the room of exhausted ARMS fighters. “Meet back tomorrow. I’ll see what we can do with everything we’ve got from today.”

“Ughhhh, tomorrow??” Lola sighed deeply. “I’ve got a match tomorrow, though...”

“Not if you or your opponent lose your ARMS you don’t.” Coyle glared.

“Yeah but if I’ve still got ‘em I’m pretty sure the match is on. S’not like BYTE is gonna lose his.”

“Affirmative.” BYTE confirmed from the corner of the room.

“Fine, well, I’ll be expecting to see you arrive after your match is through.” Coyle folded her arms, which still felt a little weird to do given how nonmetallic they were. “It  _ is _ best we keep these fights going, though. The less the public notices of this the better. But, Singsong, you  _ are _ going to have to inform the League higher-ups of this soon. Preferably tonight.”

“W-Wha?” Ribbon Girl jumped. “No no no, they’ll postpone my return match if we tell them!”

“Soooo... You’re going to, what, go in the ring  _ without _ your ARMS? Right when everyone is watching?”

Ribbon Girl really didn’t want to postpone the match - it would give such a cowardly impression to the fans. But Coyle was right about there not being much else they could do.

“Look, if we can resolve things sooner then there’ll be nothing to worry about. But for the time being it’s important that the League knows what’s happening. If they can schedule near-future fights to be more centered around Copper & Canine, Helix, Springtron, and Little Angel we’re less likely to have sudden cancalizations.”

“I’m good to go though, yeah?” Lola chipped from the corner.

Coyle glared again. “ _ Yes _ , you’re good to go. Actually, those of you not next on the list should fight as much as you can while your virus is unenergized. If we immediately switch to just the unnatural ARMS right off the bat it’s going to be noticed.”

“When you say ‘not next on the list’ do you m-”

“Yes, I mean  _ not you _ , Slytherin.” Coyle turned to the snake man sat in front of her. “You’ll most likely have lost your ARMS by morning, so we’re certainly not scheduling anything for you.”

“Uhh, no no  _ no! _ ” He rebutted confidently. “The list skipped me over! It went straight down to Misango!  _ And _ I’ve already cured myself, so-”

“I told you already that that lead was easily debunked - you are  _ not _ off the list.”

“Suuuure.” Kid Cobra grinned. “But ya know what? I just really don’t feel all that worried about it~”

A long sigh equally came from Coyle, Ribbon Girl, and Min Min, while a tiny little snore squeaked from Mechanica’s nose.

“Awwwwww, that is  _ so _ precious!” Coyle gleed as she noticed Mechancia taking a snooze with her cheek flat on the desk.

“Okay, I think it’s time we all call it a night.” Ribbon Girl yawned, getting up from her seat, similarly tired. “Min Min and I will take Mechanica home.” She gave a small nudge to Mechanica’s shoulder, and the sleepy girl slowly looked up at her with half-open eyes that she brushed gently with the back of her hand.

“Back tomorrow -  _ all of you _ .” Coyle reminded, taking up her big stack of papers again. “A new day means new developments.”

And with that, everyone once again parted ways and went home for some rest. Ribbon Girl and Min Min chose to stay rather quiet on the way home, partially because of their own exhaustion, but also because Mechanica was asleep again in the back seats. Once home, Ribbon Girl begrudgingly contacted the ARMS League highers-ups and explained the situation to them. They finally got to bed long after the sun had set, falling asleep pretty much just as their heads hit the pillows, holding onto the hope that they may wake up the next morning with their ARMS back.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

All things considered, it was a pretty normal morning. They were much more used to being ARM-less now, and knowing that the ARMS Lab was doing everything they could to resolve this certainly felt reassuring.

For the third day in a row now they made their way to the studio where the meeting was to be held. Something was a little off as they stepped through those studio doors, though.

“...Min?” Ribbon Girl hushed, turning to her girlfriend as they walked through the hallway. “Do you hear that...?”

A distinct sobbing was coming from the ARMS League boardroom.


	6. Complications

The pair made their way further down the hall. It seemed the closer they got to their boardroom, the louder the distant sobbing would get

And there, around the corner, stood a familiar face. Professor Stuart Appen watched from the arch his own boardroom with his eyes locked firmly on the ARMS League’s door, his poshly gloved arms folded over one another.

“Ugh, him again?” Min Min mumbled as the two approached from behind.

As they grew closer, Appen seemed to notice the footsteps, and turned to face them. “Ah. Back again so soon?”

Min Min rolled her eyes as visibly as she could, while Ribbon Girl mustered all the care she could be bothered to give and gave a weak nod in his direction. “Good morning.” She mumbled, not particularly interested in holding a conversation with him.

“What’s happened in the fighting community, then?” He prodded. “Someone sure seems  _ upset. _ ” He motioned his head to the ARMS League’s door.

“Wait, that’s... Coming from  _ our _ room?” Ribbon Girl returned, surprised.

“I figured it was you.” Min Min shrugged. “Thought they’d finally cancelled your lame-ass show.” Ordinarily that would warrant a ‘be nice!’ nudge from Ribbon Girl, but she didn’t seem to care much anymore when it came to Appen.

“Hilarious.” He sighed. “Though, speaking of cancellations... Got cold feet, have we?” He looked at Ribbon Girl with a sense of smugness. “I thought you’d taken long enough to get back in the ring, but then I read earlier that your championship dispute has been delayed again. Why’s that?”

“I don’t have to explain these things to you.” Ribbon Girl glared, unamused.

“Hm.” He glared back.

“Hey four-eyes,” Min Min chimed, despite the fact Appen didn’t wear glasses. “I’ve got a proverb for ya:  _ actions speak louder than words _ . Guess that’s why ARMS fightin’ has always pulled more views than your nerd-talk, eh?”

His glare turned to her, now. “I think you forget the theme of the episode was  _ misused _ proverbs and idioms. Ones that had common abbreviations that distorted the original intent of the-”

“Ughh,  _ nottttt interestedddd. _ ” Min Min groaned, cutting him off.

Appen sighed, turning to address Ribbon Girl again. “ _ How _ do you put up with her?”

“She’s cute.” Ribbon Girl answered with a shrug. She was beginning to get really annoyed with Appen’s remarks.

He shook his head, seemingly disappointed with her. “It’s such a shame, Ribbon Girl. If you had picked up a more worthwhile past time than  _ punching _ you really could have been something.”

“I’m fine as I am,  _ thanks. _ ” She grunted with a glare. These remarks were really beginning to grind on her.

“If you’re content being a knucklehead dating a moron and settling things with your fists rather than your words, then yes. You I suppose you  _ are _ fine as you are.”

Okay, one too many. Ribbon Girl struck a finger to her chest. “ _ My _ life is none of-” She then struck that same finger to  _ his _ chest. “ _ Your _ business. What I do with  _ my _ career and  _ my _ relationships and-”

Appen caught her wrist in his hand as he cut her off. “If you can’t handle a few snide remarks, you shouldn’t be dishing them out so-” He paused, his eyes quickly falling to the ARM(?) he was holding.

Ribbon Girl’s eyes widened. She snatched back her hand quickly. “G-GET OFF OF ME!”

Min Min took a step before her, glaring at him. “I think you need to get back in your lil room and mind your own ( _ failing) _ business.”

He stayed quiet, staring at the hand Ribbon Girl had pulled back, before flicking his eyes to the nearby ARMS League boardroom door, where that sobbing sound could still be heard echoing. “...Hm.” Without another word, he stepped back into his own boardroom and shut the door behind him.

“God, what a  _ jerk! _ ” Min Min grunted. “Those comments - and then grabbing you like that?”

Ribbon Girl looked sullenly at the floor, holding her wrist. “...I think he knows.”

“What?”

“I think he could feel the gloves.” She felt the fabric around her wrist move as her fingers pushed it. “...He knows I’ve lost my ARMS.”

Min Min looked at her in silence, then back at Appen’s door. “W-Well that doesn’t mean he... I mean, he only felt it for like a second, right? And how does he know that’s not just how ribbon-ARMS feel?”

Ribbon Girl sighed, opening her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a yell coming from the nearby boardroom. “CAN YOU SHUT UP ALREADY?” The voice echoed. “GOD, YOU’RE SUCH A  _ BABY. _ ”

“Uhhhhh...?” Min Min squinted. “Coyle sounds  _ mad _ .”

The two continued on their way to the ARMS League boardroom, and opened the door to find a large chunk of the ARMS fighters already present. Master Mummy, Spring Man, Ninjara, and Lola Pop were all sat around the table. Helix was naturally in the corner of the room, with BYTE & BARQ in the opposite corner. To the far end of the table was Coyle, with Mechanica by her side, and... Kid Cobra laying face-down on the table?

Kid Cobra’s body rose up and down in rhythm as he sobbed.

“Uhhhh...” Ribbon Girl mumbled. “Everything okay in here?”

“Ah, there you are.” Coyle muttered as she noticed the two had entered. “Yeah, Slytherin’s lost his ARMS. Big surprise.”

“B-B-B-But I a-ate the... W-Ahhhhhhhh-ha-haaaaa!!!” He wailed.

“Told you that was a dumb theory.” Coyle sighed. “Anyways, both Other Spring and Bedwetter are next on the list, so we’ll see what happens with them.”

“Wait, what?” Ninjara squinted. “ _ What’s _ my nickname?”

“Bedwetter.” Coyle repeated. Lola burst into laughter.

“Huh??” Ninjara jolted forward. “What kind of a nickname is that?! That’s not accurate  _ at all! _ ”

“Coyle knows all, dude!” Lola added through her laughs.

“B-But I’ve never-”

“It’s just a  _ nickname, _ kid.” Coyle rolled her eyes. “You just strike me as the kind of guy who  _ would _ .”

“ _ But I don’t! _ ” He insisted. “If anyone should have that nickname here, it should be  _ her! _ ” He quickly struck his finger out at Mechanica, who was sat doing Coyle’s nails for her.

“Well I don’t do that either...” She mumbled with a frown.

“Be nice to Little Angel, she’s got dryer sheets than you and you know it.” Coyle smirked.

“C-Can  _ anyone _ back me up here??” Ninjara pleaded to the room, though everyone stayed silent. He sat back down with a huff. “If  _ Twintelle _ were here...”

“Anywaysssss...” Coyle sighed. “We’re still not all that closer to figuring this out. We-”

“Waaaaaaaaaaahhh-ha-ha-haaaaa!” Kid Cobra continued to wail.

“Oh my god  _ shut upppppppppppppp! _ ” She insisted. “Get off the damn table! Go cry at home or something!  _ God. _ ”

Kid Cobra slid himself off of the boardroom desk, still whimpering, and went in the corner to crawl up in a fetal position. Helix, nearby, blobbed over to him quietly and pat him on the back.

“ _ ANYWAYS. _ ” Coyle groaned, taking her hand back from Mechanica. “We need to brainstorm more solutions here. We need a cause, a solution, and a culprit. Any ideas?” She took a glance at her fingertips and quietly addressed Mechanica. “Excellent work, by the way.”

Ribbon Girl, who was now sat beside Min Min at the table, gave a small sigh. “I’ve told the ARMS League about this and they’ve postponed future fights for those of us already effected. They said they’re doing their best to look into it too, so maybe that’ll help.”

“Yeah, they called the ARMS Lab last night.” Coyle added. “Upped our funding to help find a solution.”

Master Mummy’s hand rose. “I think we need to look further at the ordering here. Why would it start with Min Min and I? Why does it end with Helix and Lola Pop?”

“Actually we checked Helix again this morning and he still hasn’t risen at all. At this rate he likely wont lose his ARMS at all.”

“So he  _ is _ immune, then?” Spring Man asked.

“Not sure. Could be. Though we checked the blood sample Lola left last night and she’s not gotten any closer to being ‘disARMed’ either.”

“Fun.” Lola mumbled uncaringly. Coyle gave her a glare.

“What about Misango, though?” Master Mummy continued. “He’s still the outlier, right? He lost his ARMS out of order?”

“Hmmm.” Coyle mumbled. “Yeah, I’m still not sure what to make of Eye Candy. That’s...  _ Strange. _ ”

“I’ve got a questionnnnn.” Lola raised her hand. “Why’s he ‘Eye Candy’? Shouldn’t that be me?”

“You are in my mind~” Ribbon Girl muttered only loud enough for Min Min to hear, earning her a nudge back.

“Why would _ you _ be ‘Eye Candy’?” Coyle asked, raising an eyebrow.

“‘Cause... Candy?”

“Oh. Nah, your whole candy theme kinda takes a backseat to the whole clown thing. You’re  _ ‘Child’s Nightmare’. _ ”

Lola snorted. “That’s so dumb! Kids love me~” She turned to Mechanica. “Right, gumdrop?” Mechanica gave a bright thumbs up in return.

“Can we focus, please?” Master Mummy insisted. “Why would Misango go out of order?”

“How do we know he’s  _ actually _ lost his ARMS?” Ninjara added. “Could be lying. Could be behind all of this.”

“Bedwetter has a point...” Coyle mumbled, earning an annoyed look from Ninjara for the further use of that nickname. “Going out of order  _ without _ proof of ARMS loss? That’s suspicious. I doubt that could even-”

Suddenly the door swung open, and the sound of heels quietly entered the room as everyone silently watched in awe.

Well, everyone except Ninjara. “Twintelle!” He jumped up. “Back me up here! Coyle’s been calling me-” He stopped suddenly as he caught onto the one thing everyone else already had.

Twintelle gave no glances as she made her stride toward Coyle. Her long hair was down and straight, laying over her shoulders in quite a beautiful manner, layering shimmering pink and white locks in a new hairstyle that-  _ Oh, hold on. Where were her ARMS...? _

She stood still in front of Coyle, her arms folded in front of her chest, with a bothered look on her face.

Coyle looked up at her with a look of annoyed disbelief. “ _ You weren’t next on our list. _ ” She grunted through her teeth.

“I don’t care what your list is. Just be glad I’m here to update you.” She glared. “If  _ any _ of you mention a single word of this to anyone outside this room I will have my lawyers ruin you.” She withdrew a brown envelope from her bag. “Here.”

“What the hell is this?” Coyle asked, taking it from her.

“Pictures of my photoshoot yesterday.”

“I’m not interested.”

Twintelle rolled her eyes. “Just give me a call when you’ve  _ fixed _ this.” And with that, she already began to leave.

“Wait, so she’s gone out of order too?” Master Mummy questioned as the door slammed shut behind her. “And we have proof of her condition, so I suppose Misango-”

“ **WHAT?** ” Coyle grunted loudly, looking at the photographs from the envelope. The room fell silent on her. “You’ve got to be... How the...  **_WHAT?_ ** ” She got to her feet dramatically and began to pace around the room. “No, no, no, no,  _ no, no, no, no,  _ **_no, no_ ** -”

“Can you just tell us what happened already?!” Min Min groaned.

Coyle harshly threw the stack of photographs onto the table with a heavy grunt, before turning around and kicking a nearby cabinet - leaving a large dent in it.

Spring Man, still having his ARMS, picked up the photos and held them up for everyone to see. One by one he began to flick through them - Twintelle on a beach posing in a swimsuit, Twintelle on a large ship with a cold drink, Twintelle diving into the sea... Twintelle emerging from the sea  _ without her ARMS?! _

“Dude,  _ what? _ ” Min Min gasped. “I thought it was only happening while we were asleep??”

“IT WAS.” Coyle grunted with her head to the wall. “ _ GAHHHHHH!! _ WHAT THE  _ HELL  _ DOES THIS MEAN?”

Spring Man flicked between the diving photo and the emerging photo. “They aren’t really clear enough to make out much...” He mumbled. 

“This just complicates  _ everything! _ ” Coyle groaned. “Was it the water...? How many of you have been to the beach recently? Wait, no, how much water have you all drank in the past two weeks?”

“Those were  _ both _ questions on your list.” Min Min reminded her.

“Little Angel, look that up.”

Mechanica grabbed the stack of documents nearby and dragged them closer to her. She flicked a through pages. “Um... Low-end on the water intake for this one, but there  _ was _ a beach visit...” She flicked a handful pages more. “High water intake here, but... Oh,  _ also  _ a beach visit!”

“Oh...? Yes, go on?” Coyle began hopefully.”

“Uhhh... High water intake here, and no beach visit for... Um... The past two years or so, apparently.”

Coyle growled. “Why is this ever easy?!”

“Who the hell hasn’t gone to the beach in  _ two years? _ ” Spring Man remarked. “It’s only a short drive away.”

Mechanica ran her eyes back at the page. “Um... That was Kid Cobra. Apparently the sand gets between his scales...”

“U-Uh-huh!” Kid Cobra sniffled in the corner.

“Mummy took his kids to the beach last week and Brass goes a lot for fan meet-ups...” She mumbled, reading the pages, before suddenly catching Lola’s glance out of the corner of her eye. She quickly shielded the documents from her, but it seems she was a little too late.

Lola snorted. “Who’s  _ Joseph Davis? _ That’s a goofy name right there.”

“Ah, that’s Brass.” Coyle mumbled. “Stupid name, yeah. No wonder I’m not  _ Dr. Davis. _ ”

“...Oh!” Lola went a bit red. “Sorry, I forgotcha took our names for these things.”

“Smooth moves, clownface.” She shrugged back.

Mechanica turned back to Coyle, who was still with her face pressed to the wall. “I-I didn’t mean for her to see the documents...”

“Don’t worry, hun.” She sighed. “This whole alias business is dumb anyways.”

“Then what’s  _ your _ name?” Ninjara questioned with a squint.

Coyle turned back around, now leaning her back on the wall. “ _ Dr. Coyle. _ ”

“I don’t buy it.” He replied, his ARMS folded. “Gotta at least have a first name.”

“Well, I was  _ Dr. Tessa Romana _ once.” She shrugged. “But that was a long time ago and she’s long since dead.”

“I know Min Min’s name.” Lola chimed, leaning back on her chair.

“Oh really?” Min Min asked, unconvinced.

“Mmhmm! You’re  _ Mindy Mindy.  _ Kinda obvious, really.”

“Oh damn, you got me!” Min Min smiled. “So is that the same first name and last name, or is that just a first name?”

“Juuuuust a first name.” Lola shrugged. “Mindy Mindyyyy.... Ramen... O. Rameno. Ramero?  _ Ramero! _ ” A look of pride fell on her face. “ _ Mindy Mindy Ramero!  _ Gotcha there.”

“That’s exactly correct, well done.” Min Min laughed, for what was probably the first time in response to Lola’s jokes.

Coyle sighed. “We’re getting nowhere here. We can’t even speculate right, given this stupid new info.” She gathered the photographs up from the table. “I’ll run these by the Lab for tomorrow.”

“Ugh, we gotta be back here  _ again? _ ” Lola groaned. “Can’t we take a break? I’ve done, like,  _ nothing _ but fighting, circus shows, and these meetings for the past few days. Girls gotta take a break y’know.”

“You  _ do _ have to come in tomorrow.” Coyle glared.

“Well Misango ain’t showin’ up no more! Neither’s Brass or Twintelle.”

“Yes, well, I want  _ you _ to be here still, Lola. You being rock-bottom on the list is weird and I want you nearby if we need you. You’re gonna have a bunch more tests done, too. If  _ you _ hold the cure to all this, we’re gonna carve it out of you.”

Lola groaned. “Fineeeeee. If it’ll keep me getting gross fleshy ARMS again, I’ll be here.”

“As for the rest of you, I expect you all to be here tomorrow too. The more heads we have on this, the better. We’ll call it a day for today, though. These pics complicate things too much for us to figure anything out right now.”

With yet another meeting adjourned, everyone went their separate ways.

So what did the ARMS Lab later find with those photos of Twintelle...?  _ Absolutely nothing. _ There was no discernable reason for the ARMS being lost after being submerged like that. Fighters were split on having been to the beach recently, their regular water intake, their intake of direct sunlight... And  _ very  _ few had been submerged in saltwater recently, too. Hell, Min Min hadn’t even submerged herself in  _ fresh _ water recently, given her fear of getting her ARMS soggy. Those photos just complicated things to no end.

So when the fighters reassembled the next day, very little work was done then either. Nor the next day. Or the day after that.

And then, slowly, the general public began to notice something was wrong.


	7. The Decline of ARMS Fighting

All eyes were on the ARMS League fighters now. Questions poured in from every direction -  _ what  _ was going on? Why were so many of the League fighters suddenly avoiding the public eye? Why have fighters like Twintelle and Ribbon Girl not made any public appearances and delayed those they had planned, even when the appearances are set to their other career choices and not ARMS League related?

The fighting roster for the foreseeable future consisted pretty squarely on the same six fighters: Ninjara, Helix, BARQ & BYTE, Mechanica, Springtron, and Lola Pop. The pool of potential fight combinations had closed  _ dramatically _ , and in an attempt to keep things more varied the ARMS Lab sought to add a Cell to the list - something the general public didn’t welcome warmly, given the smaller brain functionality they had. It’s no surprise they’d yet to win a match.

Remaining on the list now were Spring Man and Ninjara, who were greatly nearing the point of ARMS loss but hadn’t quite gotten there just yet. Further testing showed that Spring Man was slightly ahead of Ninjara, so while the former sat on the sidelines the latter would remain in the League until he was next up to bat, so to speak.

Lola and Helix were also still on the list, sat at the very bottom with barely a notch toward being DisARMed. But  _ why? _ What set these two apart from the others? Helix could be explained away given his bizarre biology, but  _ Lola? _

It was because of this anomaly that she, of everyone, received the most attention from Coyle. Not particularly friendly attention, mind you.

“ _ You’re late. _ ” Coyle grunted as Lola passed into the usual meeting room.

“I had a match.” She sighed back, having lost a great deal of her humour in the past week or so.

“You’re having another physical today.” Coyle informed her out of nowhere. “We’re gonna go downstairs and run some more tests.”

“ _ More? _ ” She groaned. “Come  _ on _ dude, I just want to take a break for like five minutes. I’ve got two matches tomorrow, then another the day after, then-”

“I want to take more of your bone marrow too.” Coyle interrupted uncaringly. “We’re running short on samples.”

“Ughhhhh...” Lola clenched her teeth - giving those samples tended to sting quite a bit. “Well give me like half a minute, at least.” She sat down alongside the others at the long table.

Mechanica, Master Mummy, Ribbon Girl, Min Min, Spring Man, and Ninjara were all still present alongside Coyle and Lola (and Helix and BYTE & BARQ, who were both still to the side), though pretty much everyone else had gotten bored of the fruitless meetings and stopped coming.

Lola hunched herself over the table, tiredly. “So I guess they know we’re losin’ our ARMS, then?”

Coyle froze for a second. “...What? No, they shouldn’t have figured that out yet.  _ Why? _ ”

She propped her head up as best she could. “Some news channel guy asked me ‘bout it after the match.”

“Asked you  _ what? _ ” She grunted, her eyes worried. “What were their exact words...?”

“‘ _ Lola - is it true ARMS League fighters are losing their ARMS?’ _ . Somethin’ like that.” She mumbled.

Coyle sat wide-eyed for a moment. A similar look was on most of the other fighters around the table - certainly Ribbon Girl. But on Ninjara’s face there was a look more along the lines of... Nervousness?

Ninjara cleared his throat. “C-Coyle...” She flicked her head to him. “I... Uh... Have something to t-tell you...” He quietly pinched his fingertip and pulled, causing the metal sheen of his ARMS to slowly slip off like gloves.

The room fell silent as they all stared at him. Coyle had an immense amount of disbelief on her face. “You... No -  _ NO! _ ” She grunted. “IT’S NOT  _ YOUR TURN _ YET!” She turned to Spring man. “Do you still have  _ your _ ARMS?!”

He gave a nervous nod, quickly extending them out as a demonstration.

Coyle did her best to control her breathing. “ _ How _ have you managed to go out of order? You can’t just-”

“Wait wait wait, didn’t you have a match this morning?” Ribbon Girl interrupted. “Did you have to cancel last second...? Is that how they found out?”

“Uhhhh...” He replied nervously. “It’s a little...  _ Worse _ than that.” He got to his feet with the air of a dead man walking, and slowly approached BYTE. “Did you, uh, get that recording from the broadcasters...?”

“Affirmative.” BYTE returned, ejecting a small disc from his chestpiece.

Ninjara took it and headed over to the screen at the back of the room. “So... Uh... This was how the match went...”

Everyone watched in silence as the screen lit up and began to play a scene from earlier that morning. Set at the large open-air Spring Stadium, with a packed crowd, Ninjara was about to face off with BYTE & BARQ. The air was cold and the surrounding fans were bundled in thick coats and wooly scarves. A light snowfall graced the arena, settling to the surrounding ledges and stands, but not to the court itself. And then the game beings! Ninjara poofs ahead in a cloud of smoke, swinging an ARM to-

Ninjara sped up the footage. “Happened during round two...”

When he unpaused, the fight was commensing as many usually did. He lay a good hit on BYTE, then dodged past an incoming Seekie, before returning up with a swinging Chakram, which collides with BARQ but narrowly misses BYTE. BYTE throws a Bubb, which smacks into Ninjara’s shoulder and sends him flying to the-

A quick gasp is head around the room as the remaining fighters watch what then unfolds on screen - Ninjara gets up from the court’s floor and swings a punch, only to pathetically stumble a bit as his punch was thrown with a perfectly ordinary flesh-and-blood arm, and not the chained and extended ARMS he had just been using. His eyes widen as he looks at his own hands, and then his attention turns to the crowd, who had only just seemed to notice what the situation was. Everyone begins to murmur. Biff’s commentary stalls as he’s at a loss for words. Ninjara looks around desperately, having no clue what to do.

Coyle got up suddenly and pushed her way past Ninjara, rewinding the tape and watching it over again. Ninjara hits BARQ, he misses BYTE, BYTE hits him with a Bubb, Ninjara hits the floor, Ninjara gets up without his-

“GRAAAHH!!” Coyle growled, rewinding it again and going frame-by-frame. Just before Ninjara gets up off the floor - just after he’s scraped across it by the force of the punch, but before he gets back to his feet - his ARMS retract and fade back to flesh in the span of about four frames. “ _ Why does every new thing that comes up have to COMPLICATE EVERYTHING? _ ” She growled again, swinging a hand at the nearby wall and punching a decent hole through it, making everyone jump.

Ninjara stood in place, frozen like a statue, with sweat dripping down his forehead. He didn’t know what to say, and to say anything right now would probably be a bad idea.

Coyle panted heavily and slowly pulled her hand out of the wall. The punch had left it badly scraped up and bleeding a little, but she didn’t seem too bothered by it at the moment. She stared into nothingness with a look of sheer frustration on her face, before turning back to the room.

“If any comes to any  _ good _ hypothesis from all of this, let me know. Otherwise?” She shivered a little, boiling with rage. “I don’t want to hear a single word from any one of you.”

Everyone stared at her silently, in fearful acknowledgement.

Coyle sighed. “You!” She walked up to Lola and grabbed her by the ARM. “We’re going downstairs.”

“Ugnnnnnhhh...” Lola groaned tiredly, before getting to her feet and allowing Coyle to drag her out of the room.

The door shut behind them with a slam and everyone remained in silence for a moment longer, until Min Min began to mumble. “Thaaaaat was  _ uncomfortable. _ ”

“Yeahhhhhhh.” Ribbon Girl agreed.

“I’m sorry to hear about your ARMS, Ninjara.” Master Mummy nodded. “Do you recall any symptoms ahead of time, perhaps...?”

Ninjara shook his head, taking his seat again. “I felt like normal ‘til I got back up off the floor there.” Spring Man supportively put a hand on his shoulder.

“So... Um...” Mechanica began. “It looked like it was kinda snowing a little...? Twintelle lost her ARMS when she was in water, so maybe that’d be something?” She got up quietly and pulled Helix away from the hole in the wall Coyle had made, as he seemed very curious about the bits of dry wall that now dusted it.

“It wasn’t really snowing all that much.” Ninjara shrugged, surprisingly conversing nicely with Mechanica for once. “And there was none on the court, they put anti-freeze stuff on it beforehand.”

The slight glimmer of hope in Ribbon Girl’s heart that had shined when Mechanica posed her suggestion flickered out just as quickly as it had appeared. Bleh. So close yet so far... There  _ must _ be something they were missing, right? It really felt like she had found a solution already but she just couldn’t bring it to the part of her head where she could actually see it.  _ Come on... _ Gah, why won’t it come?!

Spring Man lost his ARMS about a day or two later, simply in his sleep like the other non-outliers in the group. And that simply left the robots (including Mechanica and her mech), Helix and the cell that had been added to the roster, and... Lola.

Now pretty much  _ no one _ was coming to the meetings anymore. Even Ribbon Girl and Min Min began to miss a few here-and-there, and they’d only stay for about twenty minutes at that. Each time was the exact same thing - Coyle ‘updates’ them that there has  _ still _ not been any solid leads, someone offers something nonsensical which she shoots down immediately, and then she drags Lola away for more testing. Rinse and repeat.

“I think they’re dating.” Min Min shrugged, pulling into the parking spot outside of the studio. Showing up to meetings at all was really only to calm Coyle at this point.

“What, Lola and Coyle?” Ribbon Girl returned, a look of confusion and slight disgust on her face. “That wouldn’t work out  _ at all _ .”

“Nah, but it’d explain why Coyle keeps  _ ~insisting~  _ Lola shows up.” The two entered the studio.

“Yeahhhh, I don’t buy it. Lola’s been in a pretty sour mood lately. Doubt she’s having much fun.”

“Sour? Clever~” Min Min laughed as they turned the corner, only to be faced with...

“Ah! Hello, ladies.” Everyone’s favourite anchorman greeted.

They both rather immediately sighed, hoping to just slip past without a word.

“W-Wait! Please...” He reached out.

They stopped, and Min Min addressed him with a tired voice. “What do you want, nerd?” It had been the first time they’d run into him since their little ‘squabble’.

“I... I wanted to apologize.” Appen gave off a respectful demeanor. “About our last encounter. I didn’t realize the two of you were facing... Troubles.”

Ribbon Girl folded her arms. Neither of them were trying to hide them at this point - after Ninjara’s public revealing, pretty much everyone knew what was going on. “We’re still looking for a solution to it all, but we’re not exactly having much luck.”

“Seems a rather dire situation indeed. I can’t imagine how that must feel.” He stared a little at her fleshy arms. She looked so  _ odd _ without the pink and white ribbons.

“Any chance you’ve got some secret brainiac knowledge you can suddenly dig up and fix all this?” Min Min shrugged with the tiniest glimmer of hope.

“I wouldn’t count on it, I’m afraid. But I’ll be in touch if I find something.” He nodded.

“Thank you.” Ribbon Girl sighed, rather sincerely. “We’re trying to keep the League afloat while we can, but it’s not going too greatly either.

“Yes, I heard your viewership was dropping. I suppose that explains the rise in Keen Comprehension’s numbers, then. I’d always thought besting the ARMS League in viewership would have felt... Well, more satisfying. But I suppose I’m rather more overcome with pity instead.”

“It’s alright...” Ribbon Girl stared at the floor. “I’m glad your show is doing well, at least.”

“Enjoy it while you can before we all get our ARMS back!” Min Min chimed, though rather hopelessly.

Appen smiled at the two. “All the best to you both.” And with that, he was off again.

“Hm.” Ribbon Girl began quietly once he was out of earshot. “Maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all.”

“I’d still rather burn alive then be on his show, though.” Min Min shrugged.

Ribbon Girl gave a soft smile at her comment, before the two continued on their way to the boardroom for what had to be the billionth time. They walked in to find the usual two faces there - Mechanica and Lola. Oh, and Helix of course! But even BYTE & BARQ weren’t turning up anymore.

“Hey!” Mechanica smiled with a soft wave. She was sat to the side of the desk’s far-end, beside where Coyle would generally sit, and was doodling a little on some notebook in front of her.

“Oh, heyyy, it’s you two...” Lola, meanwhile, was hunched over the desk with her cheek flat to the surface. She looked  _ exhausted. _

“Hey Mechy, hey Lola.” Ribbon Girl smiled weakly, taking her seat with Min Min. “Is it just us four?”

“Coyle will be here soon, but otherwise...” Mechanica shrugged apologetically. “No one seems much interested in coming anymore...”

“I guess you’re roped in ‘cause of your job, eh?” Min Min posed to her, receiving a nod in response.

“How are you holding up, Lola?” Ribbon Girl asked to the tired clown.

“Shhhhh....” She insisted. “This is like the  _ only _ time I get to sleep...”

“Ah.” Ribbon Girl shut her mouth, and they all seemed to agree to just sit around quietly and wait for-

The door swung open. “Alright, meeting number... God, I have  _ no idea _ .” Coyle grumbled, taking to the front of the desk. “Wakey wakey Lola, stuff to do.”

Lola groaned hard, doing her best to  _ sliiightly _ prop up her head so Coyle would be convinced she was listening.

“Ah? Nice to see you two again.” Coyle raised an eyebrow to the couple. “Any news for me...?”

“Not exactly...” Ribbon Girl shrugged.

Coyle sighed loudly. “Well here’s what news  _ we _ have...” She threw the stack of papers over her head and let them rain down. “ _ None. _ ”

“Reassuring.” Min Min mumbled.

“So, for the hundredth time, let’s go over what we know...” She began to write on the whiteboard while listing off every tiny scientific detail about the case.

This monologue took  _ twenty minutes _ and the others had no choice but to just sit there and listen for that time.

“...Which is why-” She paused again, glaring at Lola. “ _ Are you sleeping? _ ”

Coyle had asked this a couple times already, every few minutes or so, and Lola would typically reply with a weak “honk honk” just to indicate she was still awake. But... This time she didn’t.

Coyle continued to glare. Everyone around her stayed silent as she slowly picked up the whiteboard’s eraser and threw it at Lola, causing the clown girl to awake suddenly.

Lola’s eyes sprung wide open as the eraser pinged off her head. Her expression almost immediately changed from one of shock to one of  _ seething _ annoyance.

“Do you think this is all a joke, Lola?” Coyle glared. “Do you think, just because  _ you _ have ARMS, that means it doesn’t matter if-”

“ _ I have not slept in DAYS. _ ” Lola spat through her teeth, interrupting Coyle. “Do you have  _ ANY _ idea how tired I am...?”

“I don’t care how-”

Lola sprung to her feet. “I have done  _ TWELVE _ fights in the past week alone.  _ AND _ all your stupid little tests,  _ AND _ everything I need to do to keep my circus running  _ despite _ all this stupid crap you’ve been putting me through.”

Coyle leaned forward, getting annoyed. “You think you have  _ any _ right to talk about being ‘tired’? I have been working on this project day-and-night! ARMS fighting as a sport will be  _ dead _ if I can’t find a cure, and  _ you _ haven’t made your cooperation even  _ remotely _ easy!”

Lola’s ARMS trembled as she held onto the desk, her teeth clenched together tightly as she did her best not to just straight-up punch Coyle. “ _ THIS IS NOT FUN! _ I am so  _ SICK _ of this! I haven’t laughed in days and I can’t even think of snappy jokes like I used to. Your pain-in-the-ass badgering has just killed  _ all _ the joy in my life!”

The air of Lola’s outburst stilled the room. Coyle stared at her, not wanting to admit to any overbearingness on her part but also not wanting to push the clearly stressed-out Lola any further, seeing as she’d pretty much immediately lose a fight against someone who still had ARMS. This whole scene was  _ very _ uncomfortable for the other fighters in the room (save maybe Helix, who was staring at the wall).

Lola took a deep breath. “Y’know what? I quit.”

“You can’t quit the research team.” Coyle insisted.

“Yeah yeah yeah, so long as I have ARMS, I’m stuck here. I get that.” She threw her ARMS in the air. “But what if I wanna _quit_ _having ARMS?_ ” She struck a finger toward Ribbon Girl and Min Min. “Gimmie some of their blood. Gimmie those viruses that are just _so_ ‘energized’ or whatever. _Take my ARMS away._ ”

“Don’t you need those for your circus...?” Ribbon Girl quietly added, a little nervous.

“ _ Do you think I care? _ Screw the circus! Screw ARMS fighting. Screw  _ everything _ . I’ll abandon ‘Lola Pop’ and go back to being Melanie Whitlock for all I damn care.”

Coyle stared at her, as did everyone in the room.

She waited. “...Well?? Twinsies’ photos were bad and Ninjara’s fight footage sucked. This is your chance to watch a person lose their ARMS with your own two eyes.”

Coyle paused for a moment and then quietly left the room. Lola let out a big sigh and paced around a bit, trying to work off some of her steam.

Ribbon Girl looked back and forth between the two. Surely Lola wasn’t serious...?!

When she arrived back, Coyle was holding a tray of several items. She set it down on the desk and picked up the strange camera-like machine. “Keep this pointed at her ARMS and do your best to keep it steady. It’s got  _ insane _ frame rate.” She handed the camera to Mechanica.

“So are we doing this?” Lola glared.

“If that’s what you want, yes.” Coyle picked up a syringe off of the tray. “You’ll be part Min Min, I’m afraid.”

Min Min grimaced a little at the thought of her blood being transfused into Lola’s body, but whatever.

“I’ll have to inject it through your neck, seeing as I’m pretty sure you don’t have veins in your candy-ARMS.” She flicked the tip of the needle.

“Whatever.” Lola tilted her head to one side.

“Keep your ARMS forward on the desk. Make sure Mechanica can see them.”  


“Yeah yeah, can you just get on with it already?  _ God. _ ”  


Coyle sighed. “Y’know, for someone so sweet you sure are salty.” She closed an eye, aiming the needle just right so-  
  
Ribbon Girl gasped loudly, jumping to her feet. Everyone’s attention suddenly fell on her. “ _ I think I’ve figured it out! _ ”


	8. White Sand

Lola groaned, her head still leaned to one side. “Come onnnn, can’tcha wait ‘til this is done already?”

“What do you  _ mean _ you’ve ‘figured it out’?” Coyle glared.

“The night before Min Min lost her ARMS we went to this lil restaurant, right? And she tried the ramen there. It was  _ far _ too salty. But she kept eating it! She insisted on finishing the bowl.”

Min Min raised an eyebrow. She had pretty much forgotten that awful ramen. But how was that even relevant now?

Ribbon Girl smiled cleverly. “Then the next day  _ I _ lose  _ my _ ARMS. The night before? I was eating salted popcorn.”

“Gross.” Lola added.

“So you’re saying it’s salt that energizes the virus?” Coyle raised an eyebrow. “But I’ve seen the dietary reports - there are too many inconsistencies. Zombie was first and he had a salad that night.”

“Okay,  _ but... _ ” Ribbon Girl smiled. “He’s mummified, right? Don’t they dry out the body with salt and stuff?”

“...Hm.” She set the syringe down and picked up the whiteboard pen again. “That explains the two of you and Zombie. What about... Twintelle?”

“She-”

“She went in the saltwater ocean, obviously.” Coyle answered for herself before anyone else could. “So that implies it’s not just dietary, it’s also  _ physically _ coming into contact with salt that can make you lose the ARMS. So, okay, what about the other two outliers? Eye Candy and Bed wetter?”

“Eye Can-” Ribbon Girl shook her head quickly to correct herself. “ _ Misango _ is always barefoot and the Misangan people create footpaths by salting the earth so nothing grows there, right? ...Something like that?”

“He said we were all ‘tainted’ by bad energy or something, right?” Min Min added. “Probably did some weird ‘cleansing’ thing that involved salt.”

“Frankly he could just have a bad diet himself, it’s hard to say.” Coyle mumbled. “He’s a hard one to account for since he didn’t come in for questioning. But fine, whatever, how about Bed Wetter? We saw him lose his ARMS mid-match.”

“The anti freeze stuff on the court?” Min Min shrugged. “Scraped right against it, right? What’s that stuff taste like?”

“Typically it used to be sweet but most companies added a bittering agent to stop children drinking it.” Mechancia smiled softly. “I read it in a magazine...”

Coyle’s eyes ran across the room slowly as she thought to herself. She quietly walked over to one of the papers fallen on the floor and picked it up. She gave it a brief read and- “....  _ Oh. _ ” Her eyes lit up. “They were just using  _ salt _ to account for the snowfall.” She hurried over to the whiteboard and began to write on it, finally believing they might be onto something here. “Okay... What about Wet Lettuce?”

“Which one was he?” Min Min mumbled. “These nicknames are  _ super _ confusing.”

“ _ Brass _ .” Coyle glared. “Ordinarily I’d think he’s easy to place, but he said he changed his diet, right?”

“Yeah!” Ribbon Girl grinned. “To  _ cured fish. _ ”

“Ohhhh, you are earning some  _ real _ bonus points with me right now, missy.” Coyle wrote on the board. “I dunno if that’d be enough on its own, but he’d probably have cheated on that diet plenty of times anyways. The idiot always loved his steak dinners...” She scratched some notes beside her own name, too. “...Aaaand so do I.”

“Ah!” Min Min grinned now too. “Kay Cee went out for steaks with Brass right before he lost his ARMS, right?”

“Stop stop stop stop...” Lola finally butt-in, rolling her eyes. “Sorry, but are steaks  _ that _ salty? And you guys  _ do _ I know I eat salt sometimes too, right?”

“Do you?” Min Min raised an eyebrow, surprised.

“Saltwater taffy, yeah.” She shrugged.

“But I don’t think it’s  _ just _ salt!” Ribbon Girl beamed with confidence. “That’s not enough on its own - what if it’s just savoury stuff in general? That’d explain the steaks and stuff  _ and... _ ” She struck her finger out to Lola Pop. “You said it was on a scale, right? I’d put  _ sweet _ on the opposite end of  _ savoury _ .”

Coyle gave a rather wide smile. “You are  _ really _ earning favours here, Singsong.”

“I can explain Helix, too!” She glead, so proud of herself. “You said he was mostly corn syrup or something, right?”

“That was an exaggeration but he  _ does _ have a very high fructose level. All that goo is generally pretty sweet.” She turned back to the board. “Okay, so if we say the virus has something of a  _ taste _ receptor... Dietary savouriness takes a while but direct contact with-” Her eyes shot open again and she struck a finger out to the floor beside her. “ _ HELIX. _ ”

Helix immediately blobbed his way over to the space she had motioned to. Without hesitation Coyle struck her arms through his body and into his goo, causing everyone in the room to feel a  _ little _ grossed out.

She removed her now goo-covered arms and turned to address the other four. “Alright, so, let’s say that we’re finally onto something here and can sort out a sugary cure. That still doesn’t resolve the fact that someone intentionally did this to us and we still don’t know  _ who _ or  _ how _ .”

“It was only us ARMS League fighters, right?” Min Min added. “So it’s gotta be fighting related.”

“I thought Bon Bon was taking a break from fighting, though?” Lola shrugged, having calmed down a lot from before.

“I had just done some training with Mechancia, if that counts?” Ribbon Girl replied, secretly a little happy with that new nickname she apparently had.

“Hold on, hold on...” Coyle  struck a goo-covered finger out to Mechanica. “Were you playing arena rules or party rules?”

“Um...” Mechanica paused, thinking. “We had rush and health juices, but no bombs.”

“It’s in the juices. That’s been my suspicion for a while now - the virus was applied in the same way ARMS are healed or given rush. That woulda given a little tingly sensation too, like you get with the juices. How do you hide that something is secretly affecting your ARMS genes? Mix it in with the existing juices that-”

The whole room fell silent as Coyle’s arms suddenly spooled out all over the desk as shining golden ARMS. It took Coyle a moment to realize, but then her mouth slowly curved into a grin and she began to laugh to herself.  _ Her ARMS were BACK! _

She quickly grabbed Helix and threw him onto the desk, where he pretty happily agreed to stay. “Soak your arms, everyone. We’re back in business here.” She raised her ARMS to her face, a big beaming grin looking back at her in the reflection. “ _ Hello, you~ _ ”

Ribbon Girl and Min Min both gooped up their arms with Helix’s shimmering goo. “This feels just about as gross as it looks, honestly.” Min Min groaned.

“Alright, focus!” Coyle insisted, coiling her ARMS up to be more manageable. “ _ Someone _ did this to us. We make the juices downstairs in the Lab, so-”

“Wait.” Min Min interrupted. “The ARMS Lab is downstairs...?”

“Well  _ duh. _ ” Coyle rolled her eyes. “Where else do you think it’d be? Do you think I’ve been driving here each day?”

“I just figured it’d be in the side of a volcano or something.” Min Min shrugged. “Or maybe under the sea or-”

“Oh!” Ribbon Girl jumped as her ARMS coiled out into ribbons.

“Oh man!” Min Min grinned. “You got your ARMS b-  _ Ahk! _ ” She too jumped as her ramen ARMS came back to her.

“That’s more like it.” Coyle beamed. “You two  _ do _ look a lot better with ARMS. Now - no more distractions! We have to figure out-” She interrupted herself when she noticed Mechanica sat beside her. “...Sweetheart,  _ what _ are you doing?”

Mechanica gave a small and pitiful smile as she sat beside Coyle with her arms all soaked in Helix’s goo.

“That’s not...” Coyle sighed. “...Your day will come, kid. Chin up.”

“Okay, so, ARMS Lab is downstairs andcha make the fight juices?” Min Min attempted to get everyone back on track.

“Yes. And it goes from us to the League for distribution to the various stages across the globe. Or directly upstairs, in the case of the stages in this studio. We’ve sampled tons of bottles from our Lab  _ and _ various points of the distribution chain, but found nothing.”

“So it’s a single batch that got infected, then?” Ribbon Girl added. “Or just a couple batches? Not a wide-spread thing, but a targeted thing just to infect the roster?”

“That’s likely.” Coyle nodded. “One person infecting one batch. Presumably after it left our Lab but before it arrived to each of you.”

“But who would benefit from wanting to affect  _ just _ the roster?” Ribbon Girl pleaded.

“Someone who had it out for the ARMS League.” Min Min mumbled. “We lose ARMS, we’re stressed out, we try to hide it, viewers find out, ratings drop, the-” She stopped. “Oh my god. That  _ jerk! _ ”

“You don’t think...?” Ribbon Girl stared at her, wide-eyed.

Coyle stared blankly into the distance. “I’m going to kill him.” She raised her ARM high into the air. “Buckle up, kids!”

The various fighters, noticing the motion Coyle was making, quickly leapt out of the way just in time for Hedlok to barge straight through the floor and come crashing onto Coyle’s head.

“Alright.” Coyle spoke in a slightly roboticized tone. “Payback time.”

The six of them headed straight out of the boardroom and marched down the hall. To the opposite end the doors of an elevator slowly opened, and Appen took a step out.

“THERE HE IS!” Coyle grunted.

“Ah.” He smiled softly, noting the ARMS on the three that had been missing them. “Took you long enough~” He took a quick step back again and pressed a button, shutting the doors and sending him back upstairs.

“AFTER HIM!” Coyle ordered to her team of co-fighters through Hedlok’s metallic filter, before slamming against the elevator doors and attempting to pry them open with the six ARMS she now had.

“We can catch up to him if we’re quick...” Ribbon Girl muttered, knocking open the door to the stairwell nearby and looking up through the empty gap between floors going directly up. She struck out her ARMS and grabbed the banister of the floor above, then used it to pull her up. She did the same for the third floor, and the fourth, as her co-fighters began to perform the same maneuver.

“I... Guess I will  _ use _ the stairs, then!” Mechanica sighed, starting to dash up each step as quickly as she could.

Upon reaching the floor that most noticeably smelt of rich mahogany, the team barged onto the empty Keen Comprehension set - but Appen wasn’t  _ here _ . The place was, as per usual, rather clean and formal. The large bookshelves of thick leather-bound novels were pressed firmly against the back wall, and the armchairs ahead of them where the host and ‘guest’ would sit stood alone in a clear opening.

“He can’t be in here.” Min Min concluded. “Not really a place you could hide in.”

“Then  _ where _ is he?” Coyle grunted back.

Mechanica wobbled into the room, panting her little heart out. “Th-The elevator’s display... Said he was going... To the floor... Above...” She placed her hands to her knees, hunched over from the rush upstairs.

“ _ After him! _ ” Coyle insisted, dashing back out into the stairwell and hopping her way up and additional floor, closely followed by Ribbon Girl, Min Min, and Lola Pop.

Mechanica gave a small whimper before doing her best to follow alongside them.

The team barged their way into the next set - the championship Ribbon Ring that had been constructed for the planned titleship bout. It was dark here - all of the lights were off, aside from the small surrounding border of pink LEDs, which gave just enough light for them to make out a figure standing in the middle of the flat grid.

“Ah!” Appen chimed. “Took you long enough. I was beginning to think you imbeciles had gotten lost on the way up.”

“ _ YOU... _ ” Coyle grunted.

“I see you’ve recovered your ARMS. That also took longer than I had expected - it  _ really _ took you that long to figure a connection to taste? We talked of the five flavour categories in an episode not too long ago. Perhaps you should have been watching.”

“Can’t fault us for not wanting to watch your garbage show, loser.” Min Min glared to the silhouette in front of her, as he appeared to remove a small paper bag from the inside of his suit.

“I had banked on more of you indulging in sweeter treats on a regular basis. Had the loss rate been dramatically slower I figured you wouldn’t have found the connection too quickly. But as it stands? You each lost your ARMS back-to-back and you  _ still _ didn’t figure it out for a good while. You really are a group of knuckleheads.” He seemed to withdraw a bon bon from the pouch, crunching it as he slipped the paper bag back into his suit pocket.

“You  _ reek _ of jealousy.” Coyle mechanically spat back. “No ARMS, so you had to rely on your tiny brain to form some degree of relevance. And that didn’t work, did it? So you blamed the ARMS League.”

“The gift of ARMS is not inherently a problem. They are a wondrous tools. Even for fighting! But to turn that fighting into a  _ sport? _ That’s simply idiotic.” Appen, seemingly tired of the dark, struck his arms out. “Lights, please?” The stage’s spotlight above him clicked on, illuminating a small circle around him, while the rest of the stage remained dormant.

“You’re all talk.” Min Min shrugged. “I still think it’s jealousy.”

“I am not jealous of a restaurant waitress, a ‘champion’ in a pink skirt, a sleepy clown, or a malfunctioned chemist in a metal mask.” He insisted, straightening his tie. “And if you really think I’m jealous of your ARMS, well,  _ that just shows how unobservant you are. _ ”

Appen removed a small mask from the suit of his pocket. He placed it to his face and, in an instant, it became clear the smart black gloves he had always worn were, well,  _ not gloves. _


	9. Showtime

Mechanica finally slipped through the doors leading from the stairwell to the stage, having taken it slow and easy on her ascent so she could rest a bit. She arrived just in time to watch Anchorman Appen’s arms suddenly spool out into long and winding ARMS, seemingly gmade of the same material as the classy tie he bore. Her eyes widened at the sight and she suddenly realized she wouldn’t be of much use here - not without her suit, which was miles away, at least. She quietly slipped out of the same doors she had entered from just as silently as she had arrived.

Ribbon Girl, Min Min, Lola Pop, and Dr. Coyle each readied themselves. They were, admittedly, feeling rather confident.

“This ain’t a fight you’re gonna win, bro.” Min Min smirked. “It’s four  _ professional _ ARMS League fighters, plus Hedlok, ‘gainst a loser who’s probably never even thrown a punch before.”

“Ah, well.” Appen smiled back with a deep inhale. “I have  _ some _ advantages. Three of you have only  _ just _ recovered your ARMS - you’re each a little rusty and that virus is still working against you a fair bit, so I don’t imagine you’ll be fighting at your best. And that remaining one of you can barely keep her eyes open!”

Ribbon Girl turned to Lola, concerned. “You sure you’ve got enough energy for this?”

“Yeah yeah.” Lola yawned, pulling a gummy worms out of seemingly nowhere. “I’ll try an’ get a sugar rush or somethin’.”

“ _ Furthermore... _ ” Appen smirked. “I’m in rather good shape and I’m sure I can take a good few hits. But each of you...? I only need to hit each of you  _ once. _ ” The ends of his extended ARMS suddenly twisted as he equipped two rather unique gloves - a variation of the Chakram, but with a white outer ring, and a variation of the Triblast, with what appeared to be salt shakers in place of the explosives. Each seemed to gush a bit with a white aura, not unlike that of a poison glove, but with a more salty-tinge to put it simply.

The playing field seemed to even out a bit now, here. A solid strike to any of them with one of those would be enough to knock out their ARMS. But luckily they had-  _ Huh? _

Coyle took a look around the room. Did Helix  _ seriously  _ not come with them...? Does he  _ have _ to be ordered specifically? He can’t just put two and two together when everyone else is dashing out of the room? That stupid blob!

Okay, so the threat was a little more real now. They could recover their ARMS but they’d need to go down four full flights of stairs - and without their ARMS to cheat it, too. He could get the four of them out in the time that’d take...

“I guess this’ll make me the champion once I’ve won, huh?” Appen confidently smirked. “I think my first order of business will be to disband the ARMS League once and for all!”

“None of that works like you just said!” Ribbon Girl grunted.

“ _ Enough talk. _ ” He sighed, slowly bringing the ends of his ARMS together. “ _ Showtime. _ ” He clicked his two gloves together in something of a clapping moment, and suddenly the stage below him lit up in life.

Ribbon Girl’s prerecorded music began to blare as the laser light show beamed out through the puffs of smoke the fog machines were now emitting. The square panels on the floor began to change expression, flickering through different patterns, as a handful of them then rose into the air - including the central-most one that Appen was stood on.

Ribbon Girl, Min Min, and Dr. Coyle each jumped into the stage and began their assault. It started with Min Min charging her dragon ARM - now equipped with a Dragon glove - and aiming a blast in his direction. He performed a rather impressive backflip over it, jumping from the box he had been on to the other raised one behind him, as the one he had started on gave way under the Dragon’s blast.

Appen swung the Salt-Ram toward Min Min, and she skipped aside to avoid it, just in time for Ribbon Girl to swoop in with a Slamamander. Appen had also seen this coming, however, and blocked it pretty easily.

“You’re  _ MINE! _ ” Coyle shouted, launching all six of her charged Parabola -  _ seven _ , should you count the smaller ARM emerging from her left shoulder - toward Appen. He blocked this too, and shot out the Salt-Ram again, which Coyle avoided effortlessly... Except for the fact he wasn’t aiming at  _ her _ . The nearby box he had hit dropped a bomb, catching Coyle in its explosion and sending her to the floor momentarily.

Ribbon Girl narrowly avoided a blast from the Tri-Salt sent her way. Man, Appen wasn’t wrong - they  _ were _ out of practice. Even swinging their ARMS took a lot out of them, as if they were back but not  _ quite _ their old selves yet.

Appen took a few hits from Min Min’s Ram Ram but shrugged it off pretty easily. “Y’know,” he grunted as the platforms raised higher again, “If  _ this _ is the best your little League can manage, you really  _ are _ better off off the air.”

He sent out his Tri-Salt again and it erupted nearby to Min Min, who blocked it instantly... Yet still got caught in its blast. Her ARMS disappeared in an instant, and she was back to flesh and blood again.

Coyle gasped. “Shoot! Avoid that salt at  _ all _ costs -  _ blocking doesn’t stop it! _ ” Ribbon Girl, distressed, gave a quick confirmation nod.

Despite being essentially powerless at this point, Appen still took a moment to swing his Salt-Ram over to Min Min, catching her off-guard and sending her flying back into the audience stands around the stadium. “That’s one down.”

The fight raged on, now just the two of them on his tail, as the stage rose more and more. It was Coyle next to be caught in the blast of the Tri-Salt, but luckily it only seemed to land on Hedlok - not her own ARMS.

Min Min approached Lola on the sidelines, who was sat on the floor munching on candy corn. “Dude, give me some of that!”

“Whah good wuh that thoo?” She replied tiredly with an open mouth.

“I gotta get my ARMS back, idiot!” Min Min grunted.

She cleared her mouth and struck a finger out to the pale arms Min Min now sported - which were powered white almost all over. “You’re still covered in salt. Don’t physical contact trump the foodcha eat?”

Min Min groaned, turning back to face the battle. “Then can’t  _ you _ get out there?!”

“Chill.” She sighed. “I know when I’ll be needed, let me conserve my energy a bit.” Another handful of candy corn scooped into her mouth.

Back on the battlefield, Coyle was beginning to have problems. She sent out her left ARM but Hedlok’s trajectory was completely off when he tried to follow. “Give me a break, you scrapheap!” She grunted at him from within. “You got salt in your joints  _ that _ badly? I thought I designed you better than that!”

“Having trouble?” Appen smirked as he avoided yet another hit from Ribbon Girl. He swung again at Coyle, who once again had no choice but to let Hedlok absorb the blast.

Ribbon Girl shot her Sparky toward Appen, hoping to stun him long enough for a grab, but while it  _ did _ manage to strike him rather squarely, it seems she hadn’t charged quite enough.  _ Gah! _ Get back into the swing of things, Ribs, at this rate he’ll make it out of here a free man!

Coyle screeched at Hedlok from within his metallic shell. “You  _ stupid _ thing!  _ PUNCH! _ ” She shot out an ARM again but Hedlok’s remained limp, simply producing a rather ear-wrenching grinding noise instead as the salt in his gears clogged him too much to move. “ _ Fine _ .” She sighed as a latch near the back of the shell came undone. “I’ll do it  _ without _ you!” She withdrew Hedlok from her head and slammed him to the ground, causing him to break apart somewhat. When she looked back up, however, she was met with a Salt-Ram coming right for her.

“ _ Two down. _ ” Appen smiled brightly. “Just me and you, Champ.”

“ _ You and I. _ ” Ribbon Girl corrected, causing Appen’s smile to fall. He was now situated at the highest point of the stage where the boxes were very stacked. Whenever she punched them out from beneath him he would simply jump to the next highest and send out an ARM, which she would only barely manage to avoid. She couldn’t do much at all - his attention was now squarely on her, and he had the high ground.

“Y’know...” Appen began. “All this could have been avoided if you had just enjoyed a nice eclair every now and then.” He dodged an incoming hit. “Or perhaps some taffy.” She dodges a hit from him. “Or a chocolate bar.” He blocked the next one. “Or some ice cream!”

The next hit he sent out collided with her squarely on her left ARM, causing it and its sister to instantaneously revert back to flesh before she had even hit the floor.

“... Or maybe just have some sweet popcorn next time.” Appen smirked from atop his tower, the victor.

“ _ How about a jawbreaker? _ ” Spat Lola as she rose from behind him, sending out an ARM just as he turned to face her. It struck him squarely on his chin, but unlike the others who had been playing fair, Lola’s ARM  _ lacked a glove. _ The un-padded collision of her hard-candy hand to his face sent him falling to the floor with a thud, with two of his teeth falling nearby.

Coyle rushed over to him and pressed a boot to his chest, pinning him down. Appen withered in pain below her. “Yikes. You  _ actually _ broke his jaw.”

Lola shrugged. “Deserved it.”

From the sidelines ran in a familiar face - Mechanica had finally returned to the stage, and she carried with her two small bottles. She knelt down by Appen and popped up the cap of the first one she carried. “Had to pull this from downstairs...”

She poured the juice from the green bottle down onto Appen’s face, allowing most of his to fall down his throat as he ached from his jaw. He choked a little on it as it went down.

“Aaaand this one I got from the cafeteria...” She unscrewed the lid off of a salt shaker and dumped that down his throat too, causing him to cough and gag widely as he ingested it. His ARMS faded quickly back to flesh and blood within seconds.

“You coulda just drizzled it on his ARMS, y’know.” Min Min sighed, watching Appen furiously heave at the immense quantity of salt he had just been forced to take in.

“...Oh, shoot!” Mechanica grimaced. “S-Sorry!”

Lola shrugged again. “Deserved it.”

Coyle put a hand on her shoulder. “Good work out there. I think you  _ have _ earned a nap.”

“Are you still gonna quit ARMS fighting...?” Ribbon Girl asked sadly.

“Nahhhh, I guess not...” Lola sighed. “I just need one hell of a break after all this.  _ God _ what a headache.” Appen whimpered on the floor. “Hm. Better a headache than a jaw ache, though. That line about the jawbreaker was good, right?”

“Uhhhh...” The others seemed to all look away and avoid the question.

Lola smiled for the first time in a while. “C’monnnn, that was so good!”


	10. Epilogue

The three who had initiated the fight with Appen were back to their ARMS-having selves by that very same evening, after washing away the remaining salt they had been covered in and reapplying some of Helix’s gooey goodness.

The other fighters were called in for the very next day, for what amounted to being one of the largest gatherings they had ever managed of the ARMS League for one of these meetings. Pretty much everyone was there, happily reARMing themselves and admiring their reclaimed ARMhoods. Well - everyone except Lola, who had been given this one off to have a day squarely for herself instead.

Everyone rose their glasses to Ribbon Girl, who stood at the end of the boardroom table, happily addressing everyone. “Coyle assures me that this will cancel out the virus  _ entirely! _ ” She smiled brightly. “So we can all go back to our usual eating habits and play in the sea to our leisure once again!”

“Uh, just a warning, though...” Coyle casually added from the sidelines. “Be prepared for this to taste  _ awful. _ Cures ain’t always peach and raspberry.”

The roster each drank from their glasses and, quite immediately, began to gag at the awful mixture they were ingesting. But one by one they got it down and counted themselves off as firmly cured!

Some light chit-chat followed, as everyone talked among themselves in good spirits and harmony. The League was closer than ever! And soon enough, when the fights would come back and the championship bouts were back on schedule, ARMS fighting would be stronger than ever. Just  _ think _ of the viewership!

As for Appen, well, when all was said and done he’d be put away for a long long time. And while Coyle stood firmly against the idea of taking away a person’s ARMS ability, well, she felt she could make an exception for him - choosing to leave him uncured and stuck in flesh and blood for the remainder of his prison stay. The punishment should fit the crime after all, right?

As everyone talked among themselves, Mechanica approached Ribbon Girl and Min Min. “Hi guys!” She smiled brightly. “Gosh, it’s so good to see you and everyone else back in ARMS!”

“And  _ what _ are those, exactly?” Min Min smiled, overlooking Mechanica’s arms.

She blushed. “Aha, well... Coyle said I did really well, so she got me some new gloves.” She held up her arms, showcasing the striped golden design. “They look just like hers!! I gotta add them to my collection~”

Ribbon Girl smiled, patting Mechanica lovingly on the head. “Never change, Mechy~”

Mechanica smiled warmly and the ‘meeting’ went on, though in actuality it was something more akin to a party than a meeting. A quiet part of Ribbon Girl hoped that their noise wouldn’t disgruntle any other nearby studio hosts - they certainly didn’t need a repeat of all this again, after all.

Later that evening, Min Min jumped firmly onto their bed and sighed deeply. “Back to the status quo~” She grinned. “And it never felt better!”

“I agree!” Ribbon Girl sat on the foot of the bed, turned to her. “Hey Min, I wanted to tell you something...”

“Hm?” Min Min sat up.

“Well, I figured, seeing as we’ve been together a while now... And if I don’t say it now I’ll probably have someone else blurt it out sooner or later anyway...” She blushed a little, nervous. “...I want to tell you my name.”

Min Min’s eyes lit up. “Ohh!! Oh man, alright!” She smiled. “Gosh, you’ve got my heart racing now - I feel like I’m being proposed to!”

Ribbon Girl snorted. “Not  _ quite~ _ ” She gulped down the courage and began. “My name... is Faye.”

Min Min stared at her blankly. “...Come again?”

“Faye.” She nodded. “Faye Kingston.”

Min Min’s smile faded slowly. “Are you serious...?”

Ribbon Girl’s face switched to one of worry quite quickly. “Y-Yeah? Why...?”

Min Min put her hands to her face. “Gahhhh! That is _SO_ _stupid!!_ ”

Ribbon Girl sunk her head to her shoulders. “I-I don’t understand...”

Min Min sighed deeply, taking Ribbon Girl’s hands in her own. “Well,  _ Faye Kingston _ , to return the favour, my name...” She shut her eyes. “...Is Fei Winters.”

Ribbon Girl stared blankly at her. “...Your name is-”

She nodded.

“ _We have the same first name?!_ ” She muttered in disbelief. “Oh my god, that _is_ stupid!”

Min Min began to laugh heavily, laying back against the bed. “That’s ridiculous!”

Ribbon Girl began to laugh hysterically too. “Faye and Fei...  _ Gosh. _ No wonder Coyle smirked.” She lay down on the bed beside Min Min.

“Ughhhhhhhh!!” Min Min groaned, her hands on her head with a big smile on her face. “I  _ haaaate _ it!”

“Yepppp.” Ribbon Girl sighed as she shook her head. “I  _ think  _ I’m gonna stick to calling you Min.”

“And I’ll stick to calling you Singsong.”

“Mmmm  _ nope _ .” She dismissed.

“Eye Candy, then? I mean,  _ you are... _ ”

“Nopeeee.”

“Zombie? In the mornings?”

“You can still to  _ Ribbon Girl! _ ” She insisted with a smile.

“ _ Fiiiiine, _ Ribs.” Min Min sighed. “...Bedwetter?”

“ _ NO! _ ”

The two broke into laughter again and moved onto other things, and so another stressful chapter of their lives was finally over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In all honesty? I’m not really that happy with this one.
> 
> I think this story suffers from a series of problems and it’s kinda all over the place. If I really had to pinpoint what I don’t like about this one, in hindsight, it would be mostly these points:
> 
> \- Faaaaar too many characters to keep track of and often too many characters in one scene. Keeping track of who does and does not have ARMS is difficult and the order they lose their ARMS in is ultimately pretty flimsy too. In hindsight, why on Earth did I have Spring Man last to lose his ARMS? His eating habits is a canonical character trait!  
> -The resolution of salt/savoury stuff being the catalyst and such feels weak looking back too, seeing as it’s really something I think Coyle would have picked up on.  
> -The extent of Appen’s plan isn’t very well thought out and in general his character is kinda weak. He’s also pretty obviously the villain from the start.  
> -The second they enter that boardroom the next, like, six chapters take place entirely there. How boring! Even the somewhat more interesting ARMS-loss moments happen off-screen. What was I thinking?!  
> -The stuff about names is fun I think, but totally unrelated to the story. I should have saved it for a later fic, honestly.  
> -This fic is bizarrely long, and oddly the first few chapters are around 10 pages each (according to my Google Docs page) but later chapters are as short as 4 pages (I had to pad some out a bit, even).
> 
> Those are my main complaints, I think. But it’s been a learning experience! And my future plans have certainly been tweaked from what I’ve learnt here. Especially this next fic coming up...
> 
> If you enjoyed this fic, I’m happy you found something to like about it! Regardless of if they’re positive or negative, I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this one if you’ve read it all the way through - so please comment them! Some constructive criticism to what did and didn’t work for you would be a major help.
> 
> See you next time! x


End file.
